Beijing's Palace Museum catalogues 1.8 mln pieces of cultural relics

Beijing's Palace Museum has catalogued its entire collection of 1,807,558 pieces of cultural relics, the museum's curator has said.

After over seven years of efforts, the museum has catalogued all of the relics in its archives, including about 53,000 paintings, 75,000 calligraphy works, 16,000 pieces of copperware and 10,000 sculptures, said Shan Jixiang, the curator, Saturday at an event in commemoration of historical cities.

The Palace Museum, located in the heart of Beijing, is more popularly known as the Forbidden City.

"Its attraction is closely related to the abundant collections," Shan said.

The Forbidden City, built in 1420, was the highest center of power for about 500 years, and occupying the palace was a symbol of ruling China.

Statistics show that more than 312 million people have visited the Palace Museum since 1949. The number of annual visitors jumped from 1 million in 1949 to 14 million at present, putting the Palace Museum among the world's most popular museums.

It became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987.