The presidential office of the late Kuomintang leader Chiang Kai-shek in east China's Nanjing will be turned into a museum of modern history.

The provincial people's political consultative conference, which has used the major halls of the building as offices since the founding of new China in 1949, will move out to make way for the reconstruction of the museum.

Chiang abandoned his office, situated in downtown Nanjing, before he fled to Taiwan more than half a century ago after the then Kuomintang government failed in the civil war.

For the past half century, the office has housed a treasure trove of historically valuable items. It served as the office of the governors of Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), and later was made the palace for the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom during the Qing Dynasty that seized almost half of China at the height of its power.

(Xinhua 01/09/2001)