China begins rebuilding quake zone museum

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Reconstruction has begun on a museum of the Qiang ethnic minority, which was damaged in last year's massive earthquake in Sichuan province.

More than 136 million yuan, or about 20 million US dollars is going into the new museum in Maoxian county. The complex will cover four hectares, with a floor space of ten thousand square meters. Work will be finished in two years. Over a third of the 87 thousand people killed or missing in the quake were ethnic Qiang. Those thirty thousand were about ten percent of the total Qiang population. Eighty percent of the Qiang live in the quake-hit counties of Maoxian, Wenchuan and Beichuan. Along with the building, the quake also damaged or destroyed more than a thousand items in the museum's collections.