Visitors look at a statue of Chairman Mao Zedong at the museum. (WANG ZHUANGFEI/CHINA DAILY )
Yuan said that it took over half a century for his family to track down the tablet. "I finally found it in the Shennongjia forest being used as material in the construction of a bridge," Yuan said.
"Our family are migrants from Queshan county, Henan province," he said. "The tablet lets my family members know where we are from. It's the soul of the museum."
He takes comfort in knowing that his daughter, Yuan Yixuan - currently a PhD student at Beijing's Tsinghua University - fully supports his work.
"I feel like I'm living in old times as what I see represents 40 or even 50 years of history," she said. "My family members and I helped him set up the museum 10 years ago, and this makes us proud."
The elder Yuan was granted an award from the China Foundation for Cultural Heritage Conservation in 2011 for his notable contribution to protecting cultural relics.
"The museum was founded by me, but I feel it belongs to all Chinese people. What I want is to help people preserve precious memories of ages past," he said.
The museum is open from 9 am to 5 pm every day except Chinese traditional holidays.
