(Photo/Provided by the State Administration of Cultural Heritage)

China's first national survey of movable cultural artifacts has found that there are 108.15 million items or sets of such artifacts owned by the state.

On April 7, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage (SACH) announced that 26.61 million movable cultural artifacts had been registered. To better count and protect the country's ancient relics, a census was conducted from 2012 to 2016. It covered 1.02 million state institutions on the mainland, investigating, identifying and registering various artifacts.

(Photo/Provided by the State Administration of Cultural Heritage)

A national database was also established as the census was carried out. Paper and digital records of the artifacts will be maintained, with relevant information made available to the public. About 50 million pictures of the artifacts have so far been uploaded to the national database. Every registered artifact possesses its own unique code, which indicates the relic's location, organization and sequence number. According to SACH, 107,000 people were involved in administering the survey.

Looking ahead to the future, the survey also discovered a lack of proper facilities and staff to protect the country's cultural treasures.