A total of 5,000 children and students under 18 have visited the Shunbaozhai Clock Museum in Taicang since the beginning of the summer vacation.

The museum is owned and managed by the public for the public. Visitors can find it on 21 Nanmen Street in Chengxiang town.

Shunbaozhai features more than 800 timepieces from China, France, Switzerland, Germany, the UK. The exhibitions include table clocks, wall clocks and grandfather clocks.

Lu Jinsheng, curator of Shunbaozhai Clock Museum, tells young visitors about the history of the timepieces on exhibition in the museum in Taicang city, Jiangsu province. [Photo by Taicang Daily]

The oldest clocks in the museum are Guangzhou Clocks (Guangzhong) and Nanjing Clocks (Nanjing zhong).

Guangzhou Clocks date back to 1680, during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). They were designed on the basis of European style clocks at the time, to suit the Manchu Emperors' intricate and extravagant taste. The signature materials used in such items are mahogany, mother-of-pearl inlay and lacquer enamel.

The clocks were dubbed Guangzhou Clocks because they were made in the city by local artisans who learned from the finest clock makers in the world. Some of the clocks showed the height of mechanics of their times and are still fascinating to look at now.

Nanjing Clocks were set in table screens, so they are also called "table screen clocks". The clocks experienced a similar path of development and exhibited a restrained type of elegance. The textures of the wooden carving of the screens are refined yet quiet.

By Liu Sitong and edited by Jacob Hooson