The Museum of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region will see its exhibition area expanded from 4,000 square meters to 13,000 square meters, and its number of exhibits increased from 600 to 4,000 by October. 

The project, undertaken by the Second Construction Co Ltd of the China Construction Eighth Engineering Division, has recently started. Costing 320 million yuan ($47 million), it involves the renovation of a 17,000-square-meter floor area and a 16,000-square-meter expansion.

A rendering of the Museum of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region after its expansion. [Photo/Nanning Evening Post]

The museum, whose predecessor is the Guangxi Provincial Museum founded in 1934, was listed among China's first group of national first-level museums in 2008. It contains the greatest number and variety of bronze drums in the country.  

Despite a collection of over 70,000 items, the exhibition hall, built in 1978, can only exhibit less than one percent of them daily. After the expansion, the four-story facility will be able to display more cultural relics from different historical periods.

Set to become a new cultural landmark, the museum will forge partnerships with Southeast Asian museums in order to showcase its items abroad, while also bringing foreign cultural artifacts to China.