Construction of the Tang Tomb Mural Hall of the Shaanxi History Museum in Xi'an, Northwest China's Shaanxi Province, started last week (January 9).

With an investment of 73 million yuan (US$9.3 million), the hall is expected to be built within two years and open to the public, said museum curator Cheng Jianzheng.

The Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907) was the golden age in the development of tomb murals in China. Since the 1950s, more than 20 Tang tombs with murals have been excavated in Shaanxi. More than 540 murals from the tombs are collected in the museum.

Some 10 murals reproducing the scenes in which people play the polo and go out for hunting, and officials meet foreign envoys as well as depicting the honour guard of the royal family and women in the Tang court are masterpieces and represent the highest achievements of Tang paintings, Cheng said.

During their visit to the museum, former US President Bill Clinton and French President Jacques Chirac highly praised the murals. Clinton wrote that Tang tomb murals were as valuable as the terracotta warriors, he said.

As Tang tomb murals were painted on mud walls, it is easy for them to lose colour and become broken. In addition, existing halls in the museum cannot meet the requirements for protecting them.

"When the museum opened in 1991, it demonstrated 39 murals for half a year. Although the murals aroused keen interest from visitors, we have kept them in warehouses ever since out of consideration of protecting them," Cheng said.

To better protect and demonstrate the murals, the museum decided in 1999 to build the Tang Tomb Mural Hall and started introducing funds from the outside the next year.

As both Italy and China have an ancient civilization and Italy is advanced in the protection of murals, the museum has co-operated with it in the construction of the hall, Cheng said.

Of the total investment of 73 million yuan, 5.68 million euro comes from Italy. "Of the total investment from Italy, 4.65 million euro comes in the form of loan and 1.03 million in the form of donation," Cheng said.

Upon its completion, the hall will have an exhibition space of 3,400 square metres to display 95 murals.

"The show shelves in the hall will be purchased from Italy. They will create a clean and constant temperature environment to protect the murals when they are admired by visitors," Cheng said.

Located in the middle reaches of the Yellow River, Shaanxi is one of the birthplaces of the Chinese nation. There, early Chinese settlers developed a great civilization comparable with that of ancient Egypt, India and the area lying between Tigris and Euphrates rivers.

In a period of 1,100 years, 13 dynasties had Xi'an (which they called Chang'an) as their capital, leaving behind a rich cultural heritage in Shaanxi. A large collection of 113,000 cultural relics unearthed in Xi'an are in the Shaanxi History Museum.

Covering 65,000 square metres, the museum which features Tang Dynasty architecture is a must for every visitor to Xi'an.