Peking to get 13 new museums

Press, 5 February 1986, Page 5

Peking to get 13 new museums

NZPA-AFP Peking Thirteen museums, including one devoted solely to the Great Wall will be built in Peking in the next five years, says the “Peking Evening News”. The newspaper quoted the deputy mayor, Chen Haosu as saying the Great Wall was “the symbol of national solidarity and pride.” Construction of the 3000 km-long Great Wall was first begun in the third century B.C. although its present path dates back to the Ming Dynasty era (fifteenth to seventeenth century). In addition to the museum devoted to the Great Wall, 12 other museums would be built in Peking in the next five years focusing on folklore, local customs, Chinese architecture, industry and

snorts, the newspaper said.

Chinese officials recently announced plans to build three big museums in the next five years with a view to conserving the nation’s historical artefacts.

The first museum, to be built in Peking, would be devoted to the Chinese resistance against the Japanese occupation between 1937 and 1945. The second is to be set up in the former imperial capital of Xian in central China, where archeologists have unearthed a terracotta army guarding the tomb of Emperor Qin Shi Huangdi (221-207 BC).

The third museum would focus on the Chinese Revolution, the officials said, but gave no further details.

China at present has about 700 museums.