(Photo provided to Xinhua Daily)

Suzhou, one of the first historical and cultural cities in China, opened a sub-library of antique books at Suzhou Library on November 29.

The new library features local documents, genealogy books and other collections of Suzhou literati.

Suzhou now has five libraires recognized as state key units for the protection of ancient books. 319 ancient books have been enlisted on the National Precious Ancient Books Register. There are more than 30 organizations that have collections of ancient books with a total of millions of volumes.

The city has also made new strides in the restoration, digitalization, publicity and research of ancient books. Suzhou Library have digitalized 1,496 ancient books with 829,640 pages and a size of 16.12 TB.