The Palace of Benevolent Peace (Cining Gong) used to be the living area for empress dowager Cixi. After 1687, when empress dowager Xiaozhuang died, it was used for ceremonies until the end of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). [Photo by Xu Jingxing/ China Daily]

The Palace Museum, also known as the Forbidden City, plans to open five more sections in 2015, which will mean the area of the museum complex open to visitors will reach 65 percent.

According to Shan Jixiang, director of the museum, the newly renovated Donghua gate (Donghuamen) will be used as an exhibition area for ancient architecture and will specialize in displaying the spectacular ancient building complex and ancient cultural relics. Visitors can climb onto the Donghua gate tower and have a panoramic view over the whole complex.

Shan compares the Wu gate (wumen)-Yanchi building exhibition hall to a “heavenly palace on the ground”. He mentioned that the East and West Yanchi building exhibition hall, together with the Wumen exhibition hall, will make the largest, the most functional and most high-level modern exhibition area. It will cover 2,800 square meters and will be geared to the different display needs of a wide range of ancient relics.

The Palace Museum also plans to build the Duan gate (Duanmen) into a digital exhibition hall, which will combine traditional architecture with digital technology. By then, the most state-of-the-art digital display methods will be employed to present visitors with a clear and more straightforward impression of the Palace Museum.

And for those who are interested in the mysterious concubine lives in the Qing Dynasty, the western part of the palace, including the Cining Palace and Shoukang Palace, which were residences mainly for royal females, will be open to the public in 2015.