A senior official of the Tibet Autonomous Region said here Friday that a plan of starting the second phase of restoration of the Potala Palace is currently under consideration of the central government and is expected to be carried out soon.
Xu Mingyang, vice chairman of the regional people's government,revealed this in his meeting with Peter Stott, a consultant to the UNESCO.
Xu said that the State Administration of Cultural Heritage and the regional government have jointly worked out the overall design and budget of the second phase of the restoration of the palace.
The project is planned to last five years and cost 207 million yuan, with over 100 individual places of the palace needing repair,Xu said.
The Potala Palace, a World Heritage Building and the largest building in Tibet, was first built in the seventh century and reconstructed in the 17th century.
The Chinese government started the first phase of restoration of the palace in 1988. The project took five years to complete and cost 55 million yuan.
Peter Stott is here to study the situation of the Potala Palace and some other cultural heritages.
( November 10, 2001)
