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The annual sales of souvenirs of Beijing's Palace Museum have exceeded 1 billion yuan (about $145 million). But how did the museum spend the money?

While addressing students at a university in Beijing on Nov. 24, Shan Jixiang, the former Palace Museum director, said that as a non-profit organization, the Palace Museum invests all its sales profits back into the museum.

For instance, the money has been allocated to upgrade facilities at the museum, such as installing 1,600 chairs, flattening the 1,750 well lids, and continuously improving the automatic interpreters to provide visitor-friendly services, Shan explained.

From January to March this year, the Palace Museum held an exhibition called "Celebrating the Spring Festival in the Forbidden City", during which two royal lanterns were lit. Afterwards, the museum auctioned off the traditional lanterns for charity.

The lanterns sold for an astonishing 20 million yuan. The money raised from the auction will be used to sponsor education and cultural programs in four of the country's impoverished regions.