The Palace Museum in Beijing, also known as the Forbidden City,will open 85 percent of its exhibition space to the public by 2020, museum curator Shan Jixiang said on Wednesday.
Several projects are ongoing for the celebration of the 600th birthday of the former Ming and Qing emperors' residence in 2020. The most important project is the maintenance work on many of its ancient buildings, a report by news website thepaper.cn said.
"The Palace Museum is currently repairing some of its ancient buildings, which could mean more areas will become gradually open to the public," Shan said.
Only 30 percent of the Forbidden City's exhibition space was open to the public in 2002, while 52 percent was open in 2014. This year, that ratio will reach 65 percent and it is estimated that 76 percent of the ancient palace complex will be accessible to the public by the end of 2016.
Shan also said the museum's administrative areas will be moved outside the Forbidden City over the next few years.
For this year's 90th anniversary of the museum first being opened to the public, 18 special exhibitions will be held from October 10 onward. More than 80 percent of the 15,000 items on display in these exhibitions have never been seen by the spectators before, said Shan.
The renovation of the Yanchi House at the museum's Meridian Gate was completed in May, and it will be turned into a 2,800-square-meter exhibition hall for the display of cultural relics.
In addition, the western section of the palace, which was once the concubines' quarters, will be open to the public for the first time. The Palace of Compassion and Tranquility, where empresses once lived, will become a sculpture exhibition hall. Of the Palace Museum's 10,200 sculptures, 400 will be displayed initially.
The Forbidden City attracts more than 15 million visitors annually. In June, it started to restrict the number of visitors to no more than 80,000 every day to reduce pressure on its facilities and staff.
