A Shanxi Chinese Traditional Medicine Museum, in the city of Taigu, Shanxi province, officially opened to the public, on Dec 25, after a year of trial operation, as China's first private museum of its kind.

It has provincial relics bureau and civil affairs bureau approval and, during the trial period, had more than 10,000 visitors from China and abroad. Its relics collection now has more than 1,000 classical works and more than 2,000 animal, plant, and mineral specimens.

Yang Zhaoyin, the curator, has said that as the relics collection grows, the museum will be expanded, with a second-phase project for animals and plants, and a third-phase, for Chinese medicine preparations.

With the completion of the third phase, it will cover a more than 5,000-square-meter space, and cost around 50 million yuan.

Edited by Roger Bradshaw