Construction begins on China's national maritime museum

Work began on China's national maritime museum on Tuesday in the northern port city of Tianjin.

The museum, in the Binhai New Area of Tianjin, covers an area of 30 hectares and will cost 2.2 billion yuan (358 million US dollars), according to Chen Xianjie, an official in charge of the project.

The museum will be built on a piece of reclaimed land. It will be set in a 100 hectare cultural park. The whole project is expected to be completed by the end of 2016 and open to visitors in the first half of 2017.

With 13 to 14 exhibition halls, the museum will be able to display 5,000 to 6,500 items at one time, and it has already collected more than 42,000 pieces, Chen said.