Songtang Li is one such collector who has put part of his private collection on display for the public .In 2001,Li opened his museum in an old 18 century house in Beijing.The museam displays some of the best examples of Chinese folk art he has collected over his lifetime.Many of the pieces in the collection are actually archiectural decorations from old houses and bulidings around china capital whenever an old building was being torn down li would visit the site if there was anything from the building worth rescuing in this way li managed to accumulate thousands of folk art pieces some of which are over 1000 years old