As of yesterday (May 11), the site of the Nanyue Kingdom Palace located at the crossing of Guangzhou's Beijing Lu and Zhongshan Si Lu will be closed for the construction of the "Nanyue Kingdom Palace Museum," according to the local Cultural Bureau.
Five designs for the museum will be released in mid June and the project is to be fully operational by the end of this year. Archeologists remarked that upon completion the Nanyue Kingdom Palace Museum, along with the Nanyue Royal Tomb Museum, will apply for the World Cultural Heritage List.
The Palace is to be built into a garden-like museum with an investment of 500-800 million yuan. Separated into three phases, the entire project is slated for completion by 2016. "The Palace is just like the ancient city of Pompeii in Rome," said Pang Weilong, director of the construction project. "The archeological work has been ongoing for over 200 years."