China has sold a total of 325.4 billion yuan (47.64 billion U.S. dollars) of welfare lottery over the past 21 years, the country's lottery watchdog said on Thursday.

Of the sales, 109.6 billion yuan was earmarked for national public welfare fund, said Feng Lizhi, vice director of the China Welfare Lottery Management Center.

The fund was mainly used for the development of social welfare facilities, education and health care for orphans, the elderly and the disabled, said Wang Zhenyao, director of the Social Welfare and Charity Promotion Department under China's Ministry of Civil Affairs.

Thanks to the fund, welfare institutions had increased to 42,057 in China by the end of 2007, 33,069 more than that in 1987. Nearly two million people were accepted by the welfare institutions, 9.39 times more than the capability of welfare organizations could bear in 1987, Wang said.

"In the past, the welfare organizations only provided accommodation, however, their service has been extended to treatment, education and rehabilitation," he said.

(Xinhua News Agency November 27, 2008)