A tobacco museum recently opened to the public for free in Harbin, northeast China's Heilongjiang province, local newspaper Harbin Daily reported on Tuesday.

A visitor looks at a tobacco pipe exhibited at a newly opened tobacco museum in Harbin.

Using precious literature and cultural relics, the museum showcases history and development of the industry in China over the last 400 years. In detail, it has seven sections: the course of tobacco development; tobacco agriculture; the tobacco industry; tobacco business and trade; tobacco management; tobacco culture; tobacco smoking and tobacco control measures.

Tobacco was first introduced to China in the Ming Dynasty more than 400 years ago, and was planted around the country by the middle of the Qing Dynasty some 300 years ago.

However, China's tobacco industry has not been fully developed until China's break away from the longstanding Western monopoly when the People's Republic was established.
 
(CRI.cn November 28, 2007)