Bright prospects

A lamp collector hopes his museum will illuminate how humans have harnessed light over millennia. Huang Zhiling reports in Chengdu.

Nearly a decade after Yao Yulin had to build a pavilion atop his apartment building because his lamp collection had outgrown his home in 2004, a light bulb went off in his head - he'd open a museum. That idea is set to become a reality in April when the Chengdu Yuyao Ancient Lamp Culture Museum will open in - appropriately - Chengdu's Jinfu Lamp and Lantern Town.

Yao has struck a deal with Southwest China's largest lamp dealer to open a roughly 500-square-meter museum.