Shanghai plans to build a Metro museum by 2010 to showcase its Metro development and improve public awareness of Metro safety, city officials said on Monday.
The museum will be built near the Wuzhong Road Station of the under-construction Metro Line 10, within a complex of 460,000 square meters.

Metro Line 10 runs 36 kilometers from New Jiangwan Town in the east to Hongqiao Airport in the west.

"We hope the museum will be not only a Metro exhibition center but a Metro safety-education center," Zhang Yan, vice president of Shanghai Shentong Metro Group, said on Monday.

He said the museum will resemble sloped clouds and its surroundings will be built into an outdoor public relaxation complex.

The museum will exhibit historic documents, pictures and artifacts related to the city´s Metro history and demonstrate the technology of subway construction using multimedia exhibits.

It will include a facility for emergency drills.

"The drills will be conducted in simulated situations such as power cuts, earthquakes or even terror attacks," Zhang said.

Shanghai´s first Metro line began construction in 1989 and came into use in 1994. Now, the city has five lines totalling 145 kilometers.

By 2010, the city plans to have 11 Metro lines covering 400 kilometers to cope with the expected 70 million visitors for World Expo 2010.

It took some Western countries, such as the United States and Britain, 100 years to build that length. Shanghai hopes to reach it within 20 years.

Along with its Metro development, the city government has supported associated new technologies including the public transport card, automatic vending machines and Internet access in Metro trains.

But the rapid construction has also brought problems. On July 1, 2003, a tunnel caved in on the almost-completed No. 4 Line in the Dongjiadu area.