Palace Museum puts its house in order

Beijing - After seven years of surveying, members of staff at the Palace Museum in Beijing have finally completed an inventory of the many treasures housed at the former Qing Dynasty (1644 -1911) palace.

The Palace Museum has a total of 1,807,558 items in its collection, it revealed on Wednesday.

"This is the first time that such a thorough survey of the treasures in the museum has been made since it was founded on Oct 10, 1925," said Chen Lihua, vice-dean of the museum, who has led the survey team since the project began in 2004.