The Chinese government will spend 1.5 billion yuan (US$1.84 billion) to revamp central Beijing's Forbidden City, also known as the Imperial Palace or Palace Museum, over the next 15 years, sources from the museum said.

The face-lift will repair old buildings, dilapidated floors and fading color paintings as well as artistic antiques and articles of historical interest that need protection, said Zheng Xinmiao, curator of the Palace Museum.

The Forbidden City was the power centre of the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties from 1420 to 1912. The imperial architectural complex was first constructed in 1406 and completed in 1420. Twenty-four emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties ruled from it.

Covering more than 720,000 square meters, the Forbidden City has over 9,000 rooms, making the palace the largest and best preserved remaining ancient architecture in China. It was built on a cosmologically mandated north-south axis, and surrounded by a 52-meter-wide city moat and a 10-meter high wall.

Zheng said a modern exhibition hall would be built if that can be done in line with the principles for protection of the Imperial Palace and in harmony with the overall appearance of the palace.

The palace is expected to receive an increased number of visitors as more buildings are opened after renovations, Zheng said.

More than 80 percent of the palace will be open in the future instead of the current one-third of the palace's total area.

The vast palace was called "forbidden" because commoners, except courtiers, could not enter the complex without special permission during the Ming and Qing dynasties.

Today it is open to all.

Seven million to eight million visitors flock to the palace each year.

As part of the protection plan, the museum administration will spend seven years on clearing up the collections of cultural and art relics in the palace, and sorting out all relics from the Ming and Qing dynasties that have not been written into the inventory, Zheng said at a workshop held in Beijing last week to mark the 80th founding anniversary of the Palace Museum.

Other participants in the workshop included curators of the British Museum, the Tokyo National Museum, the Smithsonian Institution and the Dresden State Art Collections.

How to survive and how to develop in the fast growing world were the major topics for the curators. After the workshop four curators got donations from Chan Lai Wa, curator of China Red Sandalwood Museum in Beijing, who donated four of her most precious red sandalwood works to the four museums.

They are replicas of the Temple of Heaven, for the Palace Museum, at a scale of 1:15, the Wanchun Pavilion at a scale of 1:5 for the Smithsonian Institution of the United States, the Corner Tower for the British Museum at a scale of 1:5, and the Flying Cloud Building at a scale of 1:10 for the Dresden State Art Collections.

"I feel so honored to have the world famous museums accept my art works," said Chan at the donation ceremony held at the China Red Sandalwood Museum.

"I hope that more and more people will learn about red sandalwood carvings and enjoy the brilliance of Chinese traditional culture," she said.

(China Daily September 20, 2005)