In the central part of Beijing, there is a special museum which deals with folk carvings. Known as Song Tang Zhai Museum, it holds the honor as the first privately-owned museum in China. Owner Li Songtang has devoted himself to protecting the traditional art of engraving for half a century.
Our reporter Wang Jing has the story.

Located in the old part of Beijing, Song Tang Zhai Museum follows the style of traditional Chinese architecture, forming a quadrangle. With a screen wall facing the gate, the courtyard is filled with stone tables and chairs, a stone well and finely-engraved corridors. Passing the corridors, visitors will go inside the mini exhibition hall. With a small stone memorial temple facing the guests,　the　exquisite collection of stone and wood carvings has filled the first floor room and basement. From the lintels on the gate to the gate piers under the doorsills, from the outdoor screenwalls to the indoor ground bricks, all kinds of structural components in a traditional Chinese residence are included in the museum. The owner of the museum Li Songtang explains.

"They are all structural pieces from the homes of common people. People usually like to collect various things like paintings, jade articles or china wares, but seldom do they seek architectural works. But they can be valuable too."

There are currently around 3000 items on display, including gate piers, plaques and screen walls ranging from 2nd century BC to the early 20th century.

Li Songtang also has more than 10 thousand carvings and is preparing to display them to the public. His large collection of items apparently took half a century to collect. He recalls his first collection were gate piers, which is a kind of traditional stone decoration found at the front of a house.

"When I was 7 years old, there was a pair of gate piers in front of my home. I treated them like my friends and played with them a lot. However, because the whole street was in need of repair, we were told to throw them away. I was very reluctant, so I begged my father to keep them. That was my first collection."

Li Songtang's collection and preservation of carvings started from that point. In his words, the gate pier is an embodiment of the traditional Chinese art of stone carving. Because of his love for folk carvings, he also devoted himself to collect other decorations from civil houses.

"It is a sort of culture. Chinese people have always had a love for beauty. In the richer families, they thought it was an honor to decorate their courtyards and build ancestral temples as nicely as possible. Even in the poorer parts of Beijing, people tried their best to make their houses look good. So the carvings in common residences are usually great."

To let more people appreciate the craft, Li Songtang opened his museum in 2001. It is the first privately-owned museum in China. As a very proud collector, Li Songtang enjoys explaining the uniqueness of his collection to visitors.

"The carvings in Chinese architecture are unique. In the middle ages, the European countries also built lots of beautiful architecture. However, most of them are connected with religious themes and set up in public places. But in China, ordinary residences also have exquisite carvings. They engraved every beautiful thing they could imagine on stones and wood for decoration, like fairy tales, religious and ethical stories."

Li Songtang takes a screen wall from Yuan Dynasty as an example. For screen walls were used to exorcise evils, the wall was carved with a famous door-god　Zhong Kui catching a devil in his hand. The cloud on the god and the mountain under him
show that his strong power can let him go anywhere. The string of coppers indicates Zhong Kui can also bring fortune to the family.

Liu Dan is a narrator of the museum. Because of her interest in traditional Chinese carving art, she began work in the museum after graduation.

"The amount of visitors is ok. However, most of them just drop by when they come to visit other tourist attractions nearby. The good thing is that after they have seen our collection, they all told us they were amazed."

Some visitors prove Liu Dan's words are correct.

"I am not a local Beijing citizen and I'm here on business. This is the second time I have visited this museum, for I love the beautiful items. I've learned a lot about our traditional architecture."

"I didn't know we have such treasures before. They are really fantastic. I think our colleges need to add a course specializing in Chinese traditional architecture, otherwise the youngsters will forget about this craft."

Besides the domestic visitors, foreigners also show great interest.

"It's wonderful architecture. It is very different from what we have in Portugal. They are an artistic accomplishment made by Chinese people."
Although foreigners usually know little about Chinese history, Liu Dan and the other narrators can provide them with basic knowledge about collection. Li Songtang, however, always prefers to provide further information about Chinese architecture for their Chinese visitors.

"From my collection, we can tell the different carving styles and their respective ages. In the earlier Han Dynasties, the engravings are simple and concise. When it comes to the Qing dynasty, the carvings have become more complicated and are exquisite. Moreover, the change of mainstream beliefs is also shown on these pieces. For example, the Buddhism stories are usually carved on Tang Dynasty's pieces while Taoism legends can be found on Song Dynasty pieces."

When talking about the preservation of carving skills, Li Songtang is not optimistic.

"We can still make beautiful carvings. But we prefer to use machines and are not willing to spend too much time on one piece; the carvings lack in spirit."

Li Songtang uses most of his time to protect the more valuable and older pieces. However, he's not happy about the situation of antique residences.

"When I was born in 1949, there were more than 900 thousand civil residences of the traditional style in Beijing. So far 90% percent of them have already been demolished, and the rest of them are facing the same fate. So now, when I discover that a house will be torn down, I always try my best to persuade the family to give or sell me its fine parts."

What makes Li Songtang thankful is that Beijing citizens have already realized the importance of preserving such culture. When they find such pieces of art, they often try hard to inform him.

"I know Li Songtang from the newspaper. There is a gate pier on the street where my home is. The other pier of the pair has gone, so I want Mr. Li to protect the remaining one."

Li Songtang is even thinking about expanding the scale of his museum. He hopes he can get financial support from some enterprises and build a teahouse in the opposite of his museum. In this way, visitors can appreciate his collection and enjoy the tea culture at the same time.