Construction has begun on a water conservation museum here in Hangzhou at the southern end of the world's oldest and longest man-made waterway on the eve of World Water Day, which falls on Tuesday.
   
The 128.9 meter-tall, tower-shaped museum will have 11 floors with a floor space of 36,000 square meters. It will be at home in Hangzhou, the capital city of east China's Zhejiang Province, dubbed as the "water home of China."
   
The museum's opening date has not yet been decided, said Zhang Jinru, director of the Zhejiang Provincial Water Conservancy Department, the initiator of the project, on Tuesday.
   
"The museum will acquaint the public with the history of Chinese water conservation, the philosophy of water and the importance of saving water," Zhang said.
   
China boasts a water conservation history of more than 6,000 years, whereas the scenic, ancient city of Hangzhou is well-known as the terminal of the 1,794-km-long Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, whose construction was initiated in 486 B.C., in China's Late Spring and Autumn Period.
   
A prestigious master of flood control who have been on the lips of people from generation after generation across the country, Yu the Great, was buried in Zhejiang approximately 4,000 years ago, another major reason why China designated the province as the site of the museum, Zhang said.

(Xinhua News Agency March 22, 2005)