China's biggest pawnshop, the Shanghai Orient Pawnshop Co, started business Saturday in Shanghai.

Xu Mianzhi, board director of the company, said the company has a registered capital of 50 million yuan, the highest in the country.

The business takes gold and silver items and ornaments and it will include real estate, motor vehicle, and property.

Pawnshops appeared in China 1,700 years ago but were banned in 1966 as they were regarded as bloodsuckers. They reappeared in China in the middle of 1980s.

There are 1,004 pawnshops on the Chinese mainland with a combined registered capital of 6.3 billion yuan.

Jiang Weijun, a deputy director under the State Economic and Trade Commission, said it will take about five years before China opens the pawnshop sector to overseas investment.

( People's Daily May 19, 2002)