The Grand Palace Museum Plan launched, with NT$35 million earmarked for renovations next year

By Li Xinyi, compiled and reported

The Palace Museum is world-renowned for its collection of Chinese cultural relics, housing over 682,000 artifacts, paintings, calligraphy works, books, and documents. Over the past three years, it has meticulously planned a variety of permanent and special exhibitions, consistently setting new records in visitor numbers, which reached as high as 3.44 million in 2010. Due to the limitations of its current space, it has been challenging to accommodate the growing number of visitors. In the future, the museum plans to increase its exhibition area fivefold on its existing land.

The Palace Museum has always been one of the must-visit destinations for travelers coming to Taiwan. In addition to expanding the museum’s area, a “Cultural and Creative Industries Park” will be established on the 4.8-hectare site of the former Wei Qin School, located opposite the museum grounds. The park will feature themed spaces such as a Chinese Character Museum, a Cultural and Creative Industries Development Center, an underground art street, and boutique shops for cultural and creative products. In 2012, a budget of NT$35 million will be allocated to commission project management and conduct an international architectural design competition.

The National Palace Museum in Taipei, located in Shuangxi, was completed in 1965 and has undergone four expansions since then. This “Grand Palace Museum Plan” will host an international symposium on December 1 and 2, 2011, to learn about the comprehensive planning, software, and hardware design concepts of leading museums abroad, and to consult with professional teams from major museums in the United States, the United Kingdom, and France regarding their experiences in expansion or renovation projects.