Construction officially begins today on the Gulangyu Island Musical Instrument Museum in Xiamen, southeast China's Fujian province. This museum will collect and showcase distinctive musical instruments from over 50 countries and regions, and cover music cultures of nations all over the world.

The museum will be built on five old buildings located in the northeast of Gulangyu Island, covering an area of about 5, 000 square meters.

According to sources, the museum consists of an exhibition hall for musical instruments, a concert hall, and an exhibition hall for artists’ life as well as some administrative rooms. Meanwhile, a stair-shaped open-air theatre, adapted to the local landscape of the mountain, will be built for outdoor performance.

The project is scheduled to be completed this October and will be open to the public on the New Year's Day of 2008.

(CRI.cn April 2, 2007)