China started Tuesday to build a quake museum to commemorate the devastating Wenchuan earthquake in 2008 which left more than 80,000 people dead or missing.

The museum, covering 140,000 square meters, is located in Beichuan, an autonomous county for the Qiang ethnic minority and the worst-hit area in southwest China's Sichuan Province. Construction is scheduled to be completed before May 12, 2011, the third anniversary of the quake, local officials said.

The project, estimated to cost 230 million yuan ($34.85 million), is designed by Shanghai-based Tongji University, officials said.

An 8.0-magnitude earthquake hit Sichuan and neighboring Gansu and Shaanxi provinces on May 12, 2008, leaving 87,000 people dead or missing. In Beichuan, nearly 20,000 people were lost.