Three hundred and eight items, including ceramic tea bowls, video and pictures entered the National Museum of China on Friday, representing China's opening up to the outside in the past two decades.

Yin Shengxi, a local official in a small street office in the downtown Beijing Dashila area, gave up his "iron bowl" -- a civil servant post in 1979, and erected a tea booth with several jobless youngsters.

The "Beijing youth bowl tea house" is now a nationally renowned tea trading company which provides jobs for young people and stands as a exemplar of collective enterprises since China adopted the policy of "opening to the outside world" in the 1980s.

The trading company also established the "Laoshe Teahouse" in 1988, named after China's literature maestro Lao She, to serve as a venue for foreigners to better understand Beijing.

The teahouse has received 46 foreign presidents and celebrities and nearly three million domestic and overseas tourists.

Ma Yingmin, deputy curator of the national museum, said focusing on history and art, the museum aims to exhibit the country's profound history.

"Pieces donated by the bowl tea house will also serve the above purpose," said Ma.

(Xinhua News Agency July 30, 2005)