In China in the northeast province of Liaoning, some buildings of the Shenyang Palace Museum are soon to be opened to the visiting public. This move is aimed at gaining a place for the ancient building complex on the World Heritage List.

This first group of buildings to be opened to tourists once served as study and archive rooms for the Qing dynasty imperial family. The Shenyang Palace Museum was built in 1625 by the Manchurian leaders as their royal palace before they took over other parts of China and established the Qing Dynasty. This is the first time the palace has received tourists for many decades. Extensive repairs and restoration work has been done on the major buildings. The Chinese government last month submitted the palace for evaluation by the 2004 World Heritage Conference.

(CCTV.com February 5, 2004)