Quake museum to open in SW China on disaster anniversary

Also on show will be diaries found from May 12 to June 12 and works of art about the disaster.

Fan invested 25 million yuan (3.65 million U.S. dollars) building the museum and it will be free to visitors.

"A nation must have its own memory. Relics record history. I want more people to remember the tragic moment," he said.

Before building the permanent earthquake museum, Fan built a temporary quake museum a month after the disaster in his Jianchuan Museum Complex in Anren Town, China's largest non-governmental exhibition center for the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression relics.

The smaller museum, also free, displayed more then 5,000 quake relics, including a telephone Premier Wen Jiabao used in the disaster area, a clock pointing to 2:28 p.m. when the quake struck and ruined cars.

Editor:Liu Anqi