Keeping a 'diary' of China

Newspaper collector finds value in old publications that record the country's past

For over half a century, 77-year-old Liu Yuzhi from Guiyang, Guizhou province, has been collecting newspapers of all kinds from all over the country. To date, he has a collection of more than 500,000 pieces in his self-built libraries.

Liu, a former clerk at the Guiyang Municipal Bureau of Grain, collected a wide range of "precious" newspapers such as the Xuantong Time Gazette of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), and the first and final issues of different newspapers from the last century.