After more than one year's intensive engineering work, the construction of the new China Science and Technology Museum—the largest venue for the popularization of science and technology in China—has made remarkable headway. On September 25, a ceremony marking the top-out of the main structure of the new China Science and Technology Museum was held.

The ceremony was attended by Madame Deng Nan, Standing Vice President cum Chief Executive Secretary of the China Association for Science and Technology (CAST), CAST Executive Secretaries Song Nanping and Cheng Donghong, Ms. Bao Hong, Director of the General Office of CAST, and Mr. Xu Yanhao, Director General of China Science and Technology Museum (CSTM).

Mr. Song Nanping, Executive Secretary of CAST, made an address at the ceremony. He started by sending his sincere greetings to all the workers involved in the construction of the new China Science and Technology Museum. He went on to say that during the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, a thematic exhibition of cultural relics on ancient China's scientific and technological innovations/inventions would be held inside the new museum in order to present to visitors from all over the world ancient China's preeminence in science, technology and culture; that immediately after the conclusion of the Beijing Olympics, the installation of exhibits for the new museum would begin in an all out way in order to meet the deadline of its official opening scheduled for October 2009; and that after its completion the new China Science and Technology Museum would become the largest of its kind in the country oriented to the communication and popularization of science knowledge among the general public.

To conclude, Mr. Song Nanping pointed out that given the very tight construction schedule, the work ahead for the new China Science and Technology Museum would still be weighty and complex. Such being the case, he expressed the hope that in the upcoming construction process, all sectors of the society, particularly the Beijing municipal government and its departments concerned, would continue to render the new museum their energetic support.

During the topping-out ceremony, Madame Deng Nan and other officials presented gift bags to the workers as a token of their appreciation for their hard work and contributions to the construction of the new China Science and Technology Museum.