For those with a taste for Chinese antiques, The Beijing Antiques and Art Expo offers a real treat. From high quality jade, to snuff bottles and furniture.
The antiques expo opened on Friday. There are hundreds of booths here, showcasing vintage collectables from private museums, dealers and collectors, and the expo features some reliable old classics of the antique world to enhance the overall quality of the market.
Song Jiawen, Antique Assoc. China Chamber of Industry and Commerce, said, Antique markets in China hit a low point in the past two years. First the economy slowed down. Another reason was that buyers were discovering they'd actually bought fakes. So we aim to set a high standard in the antique business.
These period furnishings belong to a private museum in Tianjian. They're genuine pieces that once belonged to a princess in the Qing Dynasty. Each piece is worth tens of thousands of US dollars, and selling the items is not the priority of the exhibitor.
Zang Xiuyun, Founder of Princess House, said, "I think it's a platform to educate those interested in antiques. More and more people are becoming interested in collecting. But they don't know what's valuable, and what's not valuable."