The Palace Museum in Beijing has announced that it has started to seek publicly an emblem for the museum.

According to the museum's office head, the emblem should accurately convey the broad and deep cultural connotation of the museum, uphold traditional Chinese culture and promote the image of the museum, which is also known as the Forbidden City.

According to the official, the search will wind up by Sept. 30, 2004, and related details could be found at the museum's official website www.dpm.org.cn.

The museum views the emblem search as a part of the celebration of the museum's 80th anniversary which falls in 2005.

Measuring 961 meters from north to south and 753 meters from east to west, the museum covers an area of over 720,000 square meters and a construction area of over 150,000 square meters.

As world's largest existing ancient palace group, the museum was designated by the State Council as among China's foremost protected monuments in 1961 and named as the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization World Heritage site in 1987.

Started from 1406, the Forbidden City construction was basically finished in 1420.

(Xinhua News Agency June 4, 2004)