Forbidden City repairs on the way

A repair project was announced on Tuesday for the Baoyun Building at Beijing's Palace Museum, commonly known as the Forbidden City.

The Baoyun Building, which literally means the building of stored treasure, is a Western-styled wood-and-brick structure within the Forbidden City's West Flowery Gate and west of the Hall of Martial Valor.

The two-story building was built on the former site of the Palace of All Peace in 1915. It occupies 1,650 square meters and has been used as storeroom, housing 3,150 boxes of some 230,000 artifacts.

"The building's roof tiles, wooden structure, interior and exterior decoration, paintings and courtyard floor have varying degrees of damage, which urgently needs repairs," said Shang Guohua, director of the Palace Museum's project management office.

Palace Museum curator Shan Jixiang said: "The Baoyun Building is the only Western-style building within the Forbidden City constructed in the Republican Period, so it has a unique character within the complex. The repaired building will maintain its style and historic features."?

The project is expected to be completed by May 2015 and the building will be used to showcase the museum's history from 1925 to 1949.

Meanwhile, the area along the Western Riverside will be reconstructed with a series of facilities and buildings for research, experiments, daily work and technology exchanges.

Occupying 19,675 square meters, the area was once destroyed and abandoned during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). Since the 1950s, it has been used as the museum's wood factory and as a storage area.

The reconstruction project is expected to be completed by March 2016.

Shan said the two projects will help significantly to protect the authenticity and integrity of cultural heritage and eliminate safety hazards.