Oct. 18,2009 is the 149th anniversary for the disaster of Yuan Ming Yuan. And a series of activities to search the Yuan Ming Yuan treasures overseas were started that day.

It is reported that, Treasures searching activity is divided into three steps, which are trips to America, Europe and Asia. And the officers and experts will go to the U.S. next month as the first step to search the treasures. This trip aims at investigating the national treasures present situation and collecting the reserved relevant materials and photos. They will take back the treasures video or photos home, which is helpful to research the Yuan Ming Yuan and to provide history material to the re-construction of Yuan Ming Yuan.

Chen Mingjie, director of Yuan Ming Yuan Administration Department said, the treasures in Yuan Ming Yuan are not only destroyed and looted by the England and French allies in 1860, but dissipated overseas in different ways. A large part of treasures are spread in Europe and some in America and Japan.

The treasures list was burnt in the fire in 1860, so the amount of the treasures cannot be figures out. How many treasures survive on earth and where they are not are unknown specifically. It is estimated that there are at least 1,500,000 pieces of treasures are scattered overseas till now.

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