Over 20,000 national archive volumes open to the public

Beijing Municipal Archives recently opened 21,568 volumes of archives to the public. This is the fourth time the municipal archive department has opened its archives on a large scale to the general public after the previous three times in 1996, 1997 and 2001.

The archives currently available to the public span the period of 1906 to 1978, including some unconcealed archives ranging from the founding of the People’s Republic of China through to 1978. These archives mainly consist of files on the construction and development of Beijing in fields such as the economy, municipal administration, agriculture, education, science and technology, culture, hygiene, development of women and environmental protection.

Some archives from the “Great Cultural Revolution” period, which have long been closely watched by the public, also opened. According to the result of a preliminary query, the names of 16 volumes opening to public contain the words “Great Cultural Revolution.”

Residents can either log on the Beijing Municipal Archives webpage www.bjma.gov.cn/index.ycs, or go to the archive department’s reception hall for looking up information in the archives. The reservation telephone number is 8610-67640609.

Translated by LOTO