Construction of the Three Gorges Museum has recently started in Chongqing, southwest China.

Sources with the Chongqing Municipal Bureau for Cultural Heritage said the museum, with a floor space of 42,000 square meters, will house 300,000 collections upon completion.

The museum consists of several galleries featuring the natural history and culture of the Three Gorges area, relics unearthed in the Three Gorges area, the history and culture of Chongqing, and arts and folkways.

The Three Gorges water project, the largest in the world which is being built, will flood 632 kilometers of land area. Chinese archaeologists have excavated more than 2,000 rare relics and around 10,000 ordinary relics in the area.

Experts predict that 200,000 to 300,000 relics need to be protected after the massive Three Gorges project is fully completed around 2009.

(Xinhua 01/03/2001)