英语新闻丨故宫博物院要开分院了！

More than 1 million visits were made to museums across Beijing during the Spring Festival holidays, marking a robust revival for the city's cultural venues.

春节期间，北京各大博物馆接待游客超过100万人次，标志着北京文化场所的强劲复苏。

Over the next few years a large venue is expected to rise on the capital's outskirts to showcase thousands of China's cultural relics.

在接下来的几年里，一个大型场馆预计将在首都郊区拔地而起，展示数以千计的中国文物。

After almost a decade of preparation work, construction began in December on a new branch of the Palace Museum, or Forbidden City. Located in Xiyuhe, a village in Haidian district, about 30 kilometers from the Forbidden City, the northern branch will include an exhibition space exceeding 60,000 square meters for cultural relics. More than 35,000 sq m will also be provided for relic restoration work, according to the museum.

立项筹备已近十年之久的故宫博物院新分馆于12月破土动工。北分馆位于北京西北郊，海淀区西北旺镇的西玉河村，距故宫约30公里，距故宫约30公里一个超过6万平方米的文物展示空间。据故宫博物院称，还将提供超过3.5万平方米的空间用于文物修复工作。

"We'll have a much larger space to meet people's expectations and enhance our capacity to show ancient Chinese civilization," Wang Xudong, director of the Palace Museum, said in a previous interview with China Daily.

故宫博物院院长王旭东此前在接受《中国日报》采访时说：“我们会用更大的空间来满足人们的期待，提升我们展示中国古代文明的能力。”

The construction work is expected to cost 2.1 billion yuan ($309.5 million). According to an official document of the construction project released online, the first phase, which includes relic warehouses and offices, will take about 3-and-a-half years to complete.

建设工程预计耗资人民币21亿元（3.095亿美元）。根据网上发布的建设项目官方文件，第一阶段包括修建文物仓库和办公室，需要约3年半的时间来完成。

The northern branch will provide much bigger spaces for exhibition curators and relic conser­vators, museum officials said. "It's the key to solving problems faced by the Forbidden City," Du Hai­jiang, deputy director of the Palace Museum and chief supervisor of construction, said in an interview with China Central Television broadcast on Thursday.

博物馆工作人员说，北院将为展览策展人和文物保护人员提供超大空间。“这是解决故宫面临的问题的关键，”故宫博物院党委书记、副院长，故宫博物院北院项目总负责人都海江在周四接受中央电视台采访时说道。

Du said more than 20,000 to 30,000 relics can be showcased in the new branch every year, and it will offer larger and better-equipped warehouses to house fragile items, such as silk pieces, which require greater attention.

都海江说，新分馆每年可展出超过2万至3万件文物，提供更大、设备更好的仓库以存放易碎物品，如丝绸，需要更多关注。

"We won't house all the relics in the warehouses of the new branch," Du said. "Relics can be put into different locations based on their nature."

“我们不会把所有的文物都放在新分馆的仓库里，”都海江说。“文物可以根据其性质放到不同的地方。”

The Forbidden City was China's royal palace from 1420 to 1911 during the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties. The year after China's last emperor, Puyi, left the royal residence in 1924, it became a public museum.

紫禁城是1420年至1911年明朝（1368-1644年）和清朝（1644-1911年）时期中国的皇家宫殿。1924年，在中国最后一位皇帝溥仪离开皇宫后的第二年，它成为了一个公共博物馆。

Thanks to its rich history and abundant royal legacies, over 1.86 million cultural relics are now housed in the museum, which accounts for 40 percent of the country's highest Level-1 cultural relics.

因其悠久的历史和丰富的皇家遗产，目前博物馆内有186万多件文物，占全国最高一级文物的40%。

However, lack of exhibition spaces and outdated offices have long bothered administrators of the museum, according to Wang and his predecessors.

然而，根据王旭东和他的前任们的说法，缺乏展览空间、办公室陈旧是长期以来一直困扰着博物馆管理人员的问题。

It is estimated that only 10,000 cultural relics can be moved out of the museum's warehouses for public viewing each year. "Some ancient architecture just doesn't have the conditions for modern exhibitions," Wang said.

据估计，每年只有1万件文物可以从博物馆的仓库中搬出供公众参观。“一些古建筑不具备现代展览的条件，”王旭东说道。

High-quality lighting systems, for example, are essential for gallery visitors to have a good viewing experience. New technologies have been used to reduce the possibility of fire caused by lighting systems in the Palace Museum, the largest collection of preserved ancient wooden structures in the world.

例如，高质量的照明系统对于画廊参观者的游览体验来说必不可少。在故宫博物院这个世界上最大的古代木结构保存地，新技术已经被用来减少照明系统引起火灾的可能性。

The proposal to build a northern branch of the museum was first made in 2013.

建造故宫北院的建议最早在2013年提出。

A blueprint drafted by the Beijing Institute of Architectural Design, which included elements of red walls and golden roofs of the Forbidden City into the modern structure, won the bid for the project.

北京建筑设计研究院起草了一份蓝图，将紫禁城的红墙金顶元素融入到现代建筑中，中标了这个项目。

At a media briefing in 2018, the museum administrator and builders said construction would begin soon, with the project expected to be completed in 2022. However, due to the monumental status of this project, further evaluation and preparation work were undertaken.

在2018年的媒体通报会上，博物馆管理者和建设者表示将很快开始施工，项目预计将于2022年完工。然而，这一项目具有纪念意义，因此进行了进一步的评估和准备工作。

"We aim to build the branch into a museum inheriting ancient classics and leading the future at the same time," Zhang Yu, chief architect of the new museum, said in December. "This landmark can be a 'guesthouse' of Chinese civilization with Eastern ethos and a global view."

“我们的目标是将分院打造成为一座传承古代经典、引领未来的博物馆，”新馆总建筑师张宇在去年12月表示。 “这个地标可以成为具有东方气质和全球视野的中华文明的‘宾馆’。”

The northern branch site was a kiln during the Qing Dynasty, where many construction components of the Forbidden City, such as glazed tiles and bricks, were burned.

北院分址是一个清代的窑址。这个窑曾给紫禁城造砖、瓦、琉璃等构件。

Venues

[ˈvenju:z]

n. 会场

Outskirt

英 ['aʊtˌskɜ:t]   美 [ˈaʊtˌskət]

n.郊区

Restoration

英[ˌrestəˈreɪʃn]美[ˌrestəˈreɪʃn]

n.整修