(Yicai Global) Nov. 30 -- Thanks to unremitting efforts, more than 80 percent of the area of the Imperial Palace will be open to the public next year, Shan Jixiang, director of the Palace Museum, said at an international Culture+Technology forum at the Imperial Palace on Nov. 28.

The museum's main southern depot, which will display the rosewood and yellow pearwood furniture pavilion of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, will be open by May. 1 next year, Beijing Youth Daily reported.

The Palace Museum and Tencent Technology (Shenzhen) Co. announced and inaugurated their collaborative innovation laboratory.

The directors of the French Louvre Museum, the Japanese Tokyo National Museum, the Russian Hermitage Museum, the Spanish Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, the Shanghai Museum, the Nanjing Museum and the Henan Museum attended the meeting.

The laboratory will task itself with carrying forward traditional culture and exploring advanced digital technology applications for protecting, researching and exhibiting cultural heritage with scientific and technological methods. It will develop smart solutions for the sustainable preservation of the world's cultural heritage.

During US President Donald Trump's visit to China, Palace Museum staff took him to see items being repaired in the cultural relic hospital, Shan said.

"President Trump was impressed by the dedication of our repair professionals who were so absorbed in restoring the cultural relics in the repair room that they did not even notice his arrival," Shan said.