Summary: The Palace Museum, also known as the Forbidden City, has begun torenovate one of its major former imperial courtyard houses in an effort tobetter protect a building that is nearly 500 years old and to set an examplefor preserving other historical building

Staff from the Palace Museum clean a chair in the Yangxin Dian, June 11, 2016. [Photo/Xinhua]

The Palace Museum, also known as the Forbidden City, has begun torenovate one of its major former imperial courtyard houses in an effort tobetter protect a building that is nearly 500 years old and to set an examplefor preserving other historical buildings.

The Yangxin Dian, or the Hall of Mental Cultivation, built in 1537, hasn'tbeen renovated in around 35 years. It is expected to be reopened in 2020with 1890 ancient cultural artifacts on exhibition.

The courtyard compound was the residence of eight emperors in the QingDynasty (1644–1911), where they managed state affairs and received seniorofficials.

The museum director Shan Qixiang said, "As a pivotal place for the formerQing authorities, the heritage has enormous historical value with the finestChinese paintings, collections of ancient books and decorations of bronzes,porcelain and jade."

He elaborated on the comprehensive plan for the three-year renovationproject on Monday saying the trailblazing work was undertaken after a yearof thorough investigation into the history and culture of the heritage.

"The renovation is divided into 33 sub-projects, including preserving thebuilding itself, setting up a database for the collections in the compound,and researching on the major historical events associated with thearchitecture," he said.

According to previous media reports, 220 million yuan ($33 million) isslated for the renovation project. The funds were mostly from donations.