Taipei Palace Museum opens southern branch

Visitors attend an exhibition on Asian Buddhist artworks at the Southern Branch of Palace Museum in Chiayi, Southeast China's Taiwan, Dec 28, 2015. [Photo/Xinhua]

A long-awaited new branch of Taipei's Palace Museum was inaugurated in Chiayi city of south Taiwan on Monday.

The project, with an area of about 68 hectares, is made up of a museum building, a green park and a lake. It costs more than 10.93 billion New Taiwan dollars ($341 million) and the design and construction took about 11 years.

The new branch is a perfect birthday present for the 90-year-old Palace Museum in Beijing, said Fung Ming-chu, director of Taipei's Palace Museum.