The former home of Peking University or Beida in downtown Beijing, birthplace of the patriotic May 4th Movement of 1919, will be turned into a museum, according to the China Revolutionary Museum.

The building was constructed in 1918 at Shatan, central Beijing, and quickly became known as the "Red Building" because it was built with red bricks.

Offices in the building that formerly belonged to Chinese revolutionary pioneers, including Mao Zedong and Li Dazhao, have been restored and will eventually be opened to the public, the museum said.

The Red Building has played a significant role in much of China's modern history.

In 1918, when Mao Zedong first came to Beijing, he was an assistant in the library of Peking University. Revolutionary figures Chen Duxiu and Li Dazhao, and cultural masters Lu Xun, Cai Yuanpei and Hu Shi all worked in the same space at various times.

The building also witnessed the birth of China's first Communist group, before the foundation of the Communist Party of China.

On May 4, 1919 about 3,000 students from over 10 universities in Beijing gathered on the north side of the building before marching to Tian'anmen Square to begin China's democratic revolution.

Several government departments which settled in the building in the 1950s, including the State Bureau of Cultural Heritage, moved out earlier this year to make way for the building's opening to the public.

Great efforts have been made to avoid damaging or changing the building's exterior and interior structures, including a ban on installing air conditioners in the offices.

(Xinhua News Agency 07/19/2001)