Wang Jijia, who is a 53-year-old farmer in Zhuanglang county in Northwest China's Gansu province， founded a private museum to exhibit old items he collected over the past 30 years.[Photo/Xinhua]

Chinese museums have been booming in recent years. According to the National Cultural Heritage Administration, China had 5,535 registered museums nationwide by the end of 2019, an increase of 181 from 2018. Among them, 1,710 were non-state-owned museums. On average of two days, a new museum has been established in China since the 13th Five-Year Plan, which started in 2016.

The items in Wang's museum induce a sense of comfort for him. Being troubled by his failure to enter the university for many years, he gradually passed through the gloomy days by browsing various books and graduation certificates of different local universities. "It's like I can share their lives," he said.

Wang sometimes spends his entire day in the museum, reading a book, or fixing a broken item to better comprehend the stories behind his collections. Any intriguing clue would become the topic of his conversation with visitors.

"I believe I'm doing a great thing, and I will carry on. The next generations need to figure out how far we have come to make a better world," Wang said.