China will turn the existing museum in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region into a technologically advanced one, showing treasures found on the ancient Silk Road.
The country will pour 110 million yuan (about US$13.3 million) into the renovation project, which is scheduled to be completed in 2005, said Du Gencheng, curator of the Xinjiang Museum.
During the first phase of construction, a square, a fountain and a garden surrounding the museum will be built, covering a total of 9,200 square meters, Du said.
"The museum, to be equipped with advanced facilities including central air-conditioning and automatic alarm and monitoring systems, will maintain its own ethnic features," he said.
The museum will have 10 exhibition halls, which are linked by a round central hall.
The museum, built in 1958, preserves more than 80,000 items of cultural and historic heritage, including treasured documents, textiles, pottery, clay figures, silk paintings and ancient corpses, which reflect the history of the Silk Road.
As the westernmost autonomous region, Xinjiang is heavily populated with ethnic minorities.
(People's Daily)
