LHASA, May 22 (Xinhua) -- Work has been completed on the Tibetan Museum for Intangible Cultural Heritage after a nearly two-year construction period, and it will open to public in the second half of 2018.

With an investment of 120 million yuan (18.9 million U.S. dollars), the museum covers an area of 40,000 square meters in the regional capital Lhasa, 3,750 meters above the sea level. The design of the main building is based on the styles of the Potala Palace and Jokhang Temple.

Tibet is home to 89 items of state-level intangible cultural heritage, 323 regional-level, and over 1,800 city and county-level items. The museum will exhibit several hundred items of intangible cultural heritage such as Gesar singing, Tibetan opera, and Thangka paintings.

A surrounding garden of up to 25,000 square meters also features nearly 1,000 plants, including some endemic to the Tibetan plateau and others from around China.