China's First Newspaper Museum

Miao Shiming, a newspaper collector in north China, would soon have his collection house renovated into China's first newspaper museum, the Taihang Newspaper Museum.

Miao, a farmer in Zuoquan County, north China's Shanxi Province, established his private newspaper house in 1998, with 150,000 yuan (18,000 US dollars).

The newspaper house now has a valuable collection including some 280,000 issues of 26,000 kinds of newspapers, 40,000 issues of 9,800 kinds of magazines, 31,000 newspaper clippings and over 2, 000 books.

Among its rare collections are several early newspapers such as Shen Bao published during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).

The first issue of the "People's Daily", which started in May, 1946, as well as over 20,000 issues of 400 kinds of newspapers published during the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) will also be in the collection.

The local government plans to have the museum included into the Guiness Book of World Record.



People's Daily Online --- http://www.peopledaily.com.cn/english/