A senior Chinese official has called for museums, cultural relic collectors at home and abroad to contribute to the national museum on Chinese characters on Friday.

Shan Jixiang, director of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage (SACH) , made the call during a meeting on seeking relic items for the museum held in Jingangshan of east Jiangxi Province.

Located in Anyang of central Henan Province, the national museum of Chinese characters occupies an area of 34,500 square meters. It will need a collection of 4,000 pieces of exhibits, and the province had only 725 in possession, according to Wang Xiaoran, vice mayor of Anyang.

Shan described the collection of the exhibits falling short as "a matter of great urgency" as the museum, due to unveil in September next year, would have finished its construction by the end of this September.

The museum, featuring the evolvement of Chinese characters since ancient times, will show cultural relics including rubbed stone inscriptions, bronze vessel of Shang Dynasty(1600 B.C.- about 1046 B.C.) and Zhou Dynasty(about 1066 B.C. - 256 B.C.), Chinese seal engraving, ancient coins, writings bamboo and silk, and calligraphy work in different dynasties.

Local museums were encouraged to exchange exhibits, jointly host shows or provide copies to show their support, Shan said, adding donations were most welcome.

The Cultural Heritage Bureau of Henan is also planning to solicit exhibits from Taiwan and foreign countries including Singapore, Japan, the Republic of Korea and the United States.

Scientists have found the earliest Chinese characters were engraved on pottery, oracle bones, jade and stones.

The first Chinese characters may have appeared as early as 8,000 years ago, according to the scientific findings of Professor Wang Yunzhi from Zhengzhou University in Henan Province.

(Xinhua News Agency August 2, 2008)