Liangzhu Culture Museum in east China's Zhejiang Province will open to the public on October 1st after four years of construction led by a British architect. ”

The discovery of relics of ancient villages, nobles' tombs with exquisite jade burial artifacts, imperial graveyards, sacrificial altars and large-scale mountain structures in Liangzhu Town marks essential evidence of China's 5,000 years of history," said Zhang Zhongpei, a former curator of the Forbidden City Museum in Beijing.

He expressed wish that the museum would become a major tourist attraction as well as a catalyst for local cultural preservation.

The museum, composed of four blocks of varying heights, but all 18 meters wide resembles a brick sculpture. The courtyards in each block are a part of a tour route that links the four exhibition halls.

The museum was designed by David Chipperfield. The Englishman's works include the glass-skinned Figge Art Museum in the United States and the award-winning National River and Rowing Museum on the banks of the River Thames in Great Britain, among others.

The 54-year-old Londoner refers to his first museum piece in China as a "creature happily bringing visitors into the retrospective world of Liangzhu culture dating back about 5,000 years."

To him, the Liangzhu Culture Museum is "neither shocking nor extravagant," with its main body wrapped up by yellow travertine stones, a kind of rock material rarely found in China. Instead, the museum is supposed to be "quiet, subliminal and low-profile."

Deputy curator Guo Qinglin said the museum would house a collection of archaeological findings from the Liangzhu cultural site. Among the highlights were unearthed jade wares featuring beautiful patterns, lacquer products, and other objects such as linen products and elephant tusk ornaments.

The Liangzhu Culture, which dates back 4,000 to 5,300 years ago received its name from the local Liangzhu Town in 1936.