TREASURE HOUSE: The Shaoxing Yue Culture Museum reflects local building style (COURTESY OF SUN HAIFANG)

Near a tranquil river and a stone bridge, an ancient Chinese structure stands against the clear blue sky in Shaoxing, a city in east China's Zhejiang Province whose history dates back 7,000 years. It is the famous private Shaoxing Yue Culture Museum.

"A person's life is limited, and cultural relics' life can be infinite. Through cultural relics, people can mentally travel to the world in ancient times and absorb nourishment from ancestors' wisdom," said Sun Haifang, owner of the museum, explaining why he decided to open a private museum.

Establishing a museum with typical items of the Yue culture in Shaoxing enabled every visitor to appreciate the infinite charm of this ancient civilization, said Sun.

The birth of the museum

Sun, a successful entrepreneur and famous collector, owns a collection of about 6,000 Yue cultural relics, several of which are unique.

Sun's passion for collecting Yue cultural relics started in the early 1980s. At that time, with the urbanization of Shaoxing, a large number of cultural relics of the ancient Yue State were unearthed. Antiquaries nationwide gathered in Shaoxing to buy and resell those treasures.

This touched Sun, who was born and grew up in Shaoxing. He decided to collect them, protect them and keep them in their birthplace—Shaoxing.

Shaoxing was the cradle of the Yue culture, which dates back to the Spring and Autumn Period (770-476B.C.). As early as 490 B.C., Goujian, King of the Yue State, built Shaoxing into the capital. Since then, 2,500 years have passed. Shaoxing has kept developing on the basis of the ancient city, and the impact of the prosperous Yue culture has reverberated through the whole of Chinese history.

"This is amazing. It's why I am highly interested in Yue cultural relics. As descendants of the ancient Yue State, it is our obligation to protect the valuable heritage of our ancestors and carry forward the ancient civilization," said Sun.

Later, he quit his job as a civil servant in the municipal government and established a company to take care of the collection. Now he has become a nationally famous collector of Yue cultural relics. As his collection increased, in 2002 Sun was struck by the idea: Why not establish a Yue culture museum?

"Shaoxing has long been renowned as the 'museum without walls.' But the cultural relics that truly reflect the city's history and culture are quite few, far from enough to give people a good knowledge of Shaoxing and the ancient Yue State," said Sun.

With this idea in mind, after some effort Sun obtained the approval of the Zhejiang Culture Relics Bureau to establish the museum.

In 2006, Sun invested 160 million yuan ($25 million) to establish the Shaoxing Yue Culture Museum, the biggest investment in a private museum in China at that time.

"A city without museums is like a person without a soul, and private museums are an important supplement to government-funded museums," he said.

Since the museum opened on October 23, 2007, it has attracted tourists and collectors from around the world to see its collections.

Rare collection

Rare treasures in the museum create an atmosphere of ancient serenity and elegance for visitors to indulge in.

"The exhibition items raise people's interest, awareness and ability in art appreciation, while helping greater numbers of visitors to have a better knowledge of Shaoxing," said Sun.

The museum's items are divided into four series: Yue-yao celadon, bronze mirrors, ancient weapons and other treasures. Many items are unique and are regarded as national treasures. These treasures have attracted a large number of collectors, especially people interested in Yue-yao celadon, bronze mirrors and ancient weapons to the museum. Here, they study these cultural relics and exchange with each other about their knowledge of the Yue civilization and specific items.

Of all the items in Sun's collection of Yue-yao celadon, the famous ancient Chinese porcelain, is the best in the whole country. He has collected representative Yue-yao celadon works from the Western Zhou Dynasty (1046-771 B.C.) to the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279).

Thin, delicate and lustrous, Yue-yao celadon, which was originally offered to the imperial family, has made incredible contributions to world civilization. In the Tang Dynasty (618-907), it began to be exported to Pakistan, Iran, Egypt and Japan, and has since changed people's living habits in Southeast Asian countries. Egypt, as well as other African countries, has modified the craftwork to enrich their ceramic industry.

"As a non-profit public organization committed to social development, museums should also be a place of leisure, besides being a place where citizens learn about ancient culture," said Sun.

So far, the museum has received more than 500,000 visitors. Visitors have been admitted to the museum for free since January 1, 2011.

Operation difficulties

Compared with public-funded museums, private museums have many disadvantages, which created difficulties in operating a private museum.

"We don't enjoy government financial support but still have to pay many taxes because we are entrepreneurs," said Sun.

The local government has, however, provided some financial supports. In 2010, the museum obtained 100,000 yuan ($15,625) from the local government, but it was far from enough.

"In the long run, private museums should be self-sustained rather than relying on governmental funds," said Sun.

So Sun turned to an operation model which helps the museum to survive on its own. He bought a downtown area of 8,800 square meters for 72 million yuan ($11.3 million). About 3,500 square meters is for commercial use, and the other part is used as an exhibition area.

"We have operated the museum with money made from the commercial projects," said Sun.

This practice proved successful. Despite the high operating cost of more than 2 million yuan ($321,500) a year, the museum runs smoothly and even has extra money to purchase further cultural relics.

In addition, after years of experiments, Sun found a private museum's strength hinges on whether it has developed its characteristics catering to a particular niche interest of audiences. With this perception, Sun expanded the museum's services into arts collection, tourism and education, all centered on the Yue civilization and relevant collections.

The museum also attaches great importance to the training of its working staff. Altogether, it has 37 employees now. In order to provide excellent service to visitors, the museum organizes training for them every fortnight. This also improves their understanding of the exhibition items and their awareness of exhibition item security.