An elderly woman surnamed Wang waited in the rain for 3 hours to have her cherished collections appraised at the Working People's Cultural Palace Saturday morning.

She traveled thousands of kilometers from Changchun, capital of northeast China's Jilin Province, to Beijing on Friday after hearing the Beijing Cultural Relics Bureau would invite renowned connoisseurs to determine the authenticity of people's collections over the weekend.

Holding umbrellas and carrying bags of varying sizes containing treasured collections, more than 1,000 people like Wang queued before a hall in the palace despite the intermittent drizzle.

The items Wang brought to the scene included an exquisite folding fan handed down through six generations.

One side of the fan features a traditional Chinese painting. The other is a calligraphy of ancient poems with a dozen blurred seals.

"I hope the experts can give me a judgment about how much it is worth," she said.

The majority of the collections people brought were ceramics and paintings, the organizer said.

People paid 5 yuan (60 US cents) for each item they wanted to have appraised during the event. The regular cost of such appraisals is at least 100 yuan (US$12).

"I had not anticipated that so many people would come here," said Mei Ninghua, head of the cultural relics bureau.

"I heard that some people were waiting at the palace door at 5:00 am. And the number of visitors is the highest since we started the activity every May in the mid-1990s."

To cope with the unprecedented sea of collectors, the bureau invited more connoisseurs.

"The bustle of the scene indicated that more and more Chinese people have an interest in collecting antiques and ancient paintings," said Mei.

"However, many of the collectors lack basic knowledge on relic appraisal. There were few genuine works found in the previous events," said Mei.

Ye Peilan, one of the ceramic connoisseurs, said most of the collections were made up of imitations.

"Some of the replicas were made in a fine way and difficult to identify," said Ye who is a researcher with the Imperial Palace Museum. "But others were badly made and could be recognized as counterfeits at first glance."

Qi Jianqiu, a curio insider working at the Zhongjia Auctions Company in Beijing, said a lot of new faces can be seen at biddings and auction prices have climbed quickly since last year.

Experts said the Chinese auction market was full of bustle and excitement in 2003.

The China Guardian Auctions Co Ltd clinched a total of 497 million yuan (US$24 million) worth of deals last year.

(China Daily May 17, 2004)