Palace Museum to add foreign relics hall 故宫新增外国文物馆

China's Palace Museum, also known as the Forbidden City, is to renovate an unfinished Western-style "Hall of Water" into a hall for foreign cultural relics, according to the museum curator.

中国故宫（也称紫禁城）中的废置的西式的“水族馆”将有望被改建成为外国文物馆，故宫博物院的馆长近期表示。

It will be the first foreign cultural relics exhibition hall in China, said Shan Jixiang, curator of the museum, at a seminar on Sunday.

馆长单霁翔在星期日的学术研讨会上同时表示，这也将成为中国的第一个外国文物馆。

Construction began on the "Hall of Water," otherwise known as Yanxi Palace, or the Hall of Prolonging Happiness, in 1909 in the late Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).

故宫“水族馆”，也称延禧宫，自晚清的1909年起开始建立。

The hall, known under yet another popular moniker as the "crystal palace," was built on a white marble base, with cast iron and glass walls and floors. It was intended that by its completion, water would be filled into a well surrounding the hall, so that people inside the pavilion could view swimming fish through the transparent glass.

延禧宫，俗称“水晶宫”，在白色大理石上建筑，有生铁和厚玻璃玻璃镶嵌在建筑上面。本来预计在完成之时，延禧宫四周会有水道环绕，室内的人们能够透过透明的玻璃看到鱼在室外游动。

However, construction was suspended in 1911 due to a tight budget, according to the official website of the Palace Museum. The Palace Museum built several warehouses around the hall in 1931 to store paintings and calligraphy.

但是，根据故宫的官方网站上的说话，因国库空虚，水晶宫尚未完工便被迫在1911年停建。此后到了1931年，几座库房建筑又在其四周建立以收藏书画。