Palace Museum to extend opening hours

Tourists visit the Palace Museum in Beijing on Sept 10, 2014. [Photo by Shi Yan/Asianewsphoto]

More areas of the Forbidden City will be open to the public this year and the museum will remain open into the evening, reports the Beijing Morning Post on Saturday.

Shan Jixiang, curator of the Beijing Palace Museum, said that nearly 65 percent of the museum will be open to visitors after its renovation work is completed, and new areas include the Palace of Benevolent Peace, Shoukang Palace, Duan Gate, Yanchi Tower of Wu Gate and the city wall of Donghua Gate.

The museum will stay open later to give visitors a greater chance to experience Chinese traditional culture, but according to the Beijing Morning Post, only the Duan Gate digital exhibition hall and cultural streets outside Shenwu Gate will be open into the evening.

The construction of the cultural streets will soon be finished on east and west sides of Shenwu Gate square, which will sell books and products related to the museum.

The Duan Gate digital exhibition hall will also open this year enabling visitors to see the whole picture of the Forbidden City without having to enter the museum.

The Forbidden City, built at the beginning of the Ming Dynasty in the 15th century, has undergone extensive renovations over the past 10-years.