Fish bone fossils, wads of money, wines, infants wrapped in blankets ... they have nothing in common, but they could all be on the list at the lost-and-found office in the Beijing Railway Station, one of the busiest transportation hubs in the Chinese capital.

Two pieces of fish bone fossils, mounted in picture frames, were sent into the office after being found on a train arriving from Harbin on Jan 22.

"Some people return for things that are, in our eyes, not too valuable, but that turned out to be of great value to the owner," said Zhang Fan, a clerk in the lost-and-found office at the station.

Once, a daughter came back for a crutch, simply because it was a gift she had given to her father. A man returned for a calligraphy piece with a Chinese character, "fo", or the Buddha, written by the abbot of a temple in North China's Shanxi province.

Months ago, a bag "that looked like nobody wanted it" was found in the square in front of the station. "It looked suspicious, so we put it through the security machine and then opened it," said Zhang Fan, a worker in the office. They found 80,000 yuan ($12,660) inside, wrapped up in raggedy clothes.

Zhang said they found the amount too big to handle and notified the police.

Li Chengsheng, who is in charge of the office, told China Daily recently that they have to handle eight to 10 cases of abandoned or lost children and infants, some as young as two days old, on trains or at stations every year.

Beijing Railway Station attendants Li Haiguang (left) and Ji Changtao clear up the crowded lost-and-found office in the station on Tuesday. Wang Jing / China Daily