After years of preparation, construction of a branch of the Palace Museum formally kicked off last Wednesday in Beijing's northwestern outskirts.
经过多年筹备，故宫博物院新院区于上周三在北京市西北郊正式开建。The branch, covering about 620,000 sq m in the north of Haidian district, will serve as a satellite institution of the complex.
新院区位于海淀区北部，占地约62万平方米，将作为故宫本院的附属机构。The branch will include 35,000 sq m of exhibition space, a conservation center of 20,000 sq m for cultural relics, and a warehouse of 23,000 sq m, according to Shan Jixiang, director of the Palace Museum.
据故宫博物院院长单霁翔介绍，新院区将包括3.5万平方米的展览空间、2万平方米的文物修复中心和2.3万平方米的库房。
Plans call for it to fully open in June 2022, but the conservation center may be ready for visits by the public in 2020, when the Forbidden City will celebrate its 600th birthday, Shan said.
单霁翔称，按照计划新院区将于2022年6月全部开放，但到2020年故宫建成600周年之际，文物修复中心可能率先向公众开放。
"Having such an institution will improve our service and expand our room to display our collections," he said.
他表示：“新院区将提升故宫博物院服务观众的能力、扩大藏品展示空间。”The lack of sufficient exhibition space has been a lingering problem for the museum, which houses more than 1.86 million cultural relics.
院藏186万余件文物的故宫博物院一直深受展览空间不足问题的困扰。The need to provide a safe and secure environment for artifacts exhibited in the ancient buildings has meant that only 2 percent of the museum's treasures can be simultaneously displayed to the public.
由于需要为古建筑中展出的文物提供安全可靠的环境，这就意味着只有2%的博物馆宝藏可以同时向公众展示。"Our collections of large items, like the huge number of tapestries and sedan chairs, particularly need exhibition spaces," Shan said. "It's currently impossible to display them in the Forbidden City, but the new museum will offer good conditions to put them on display."
单霁翔表示：“我们收藏的大件物品，如大量的挂毯和轿子，尤其需要展览空间。目前我们没法在故宫展示它们，但新院区将为展示它们提供良好的条件。”