Zhang Jianxin in his world of film, Nov 26 [Photo by Yu Hong/dtnews.cn]

Zhang Jianxin, who lives in the city of Datong, Shanxi province, is a big fan of movies, so much so that he has a collection of 2,000 old movies from different periods and a goal of establishing a film museum in the city, Datong Evening News reported on Nov 27.

Zhang began his collection, in 1997, because of an obsession with old movies, especially documentaries of the city history and life in the old days, and he devoted many years of effort so that, "The collection is actually a record of Datong’s history."

You could also say that it documents Chinese movie history. In fact the city was a popular site for both Chinese and foreign movie makers in the 1970s and '80s, resulting in two influential documentaries -- one of Premier Zhou Enlai visiting the Yungang Grottoes, a famous tourist site, the other of Premier Zhou accompanying the French president, Georges Pompidou, in 1973 in a visit the city — and a fervent interest in film workers from all over coming to look for a location to shoot.

His collection has over 70 pieces on Datong, including "Travel to the Yungang Grottoes", by a Japanese director, from 1934, a 3-minute documentary, and the earliest record of the city as a tourist site ever found. Another famous one is a TV series that was an adaptation of the classic Journey to the West, a monumental work of Chinese fiction, directed by Yang Jie, in 1986.

These days, Zhang's idea about a film museum has gotten some positive responses from private entrepreneurs in the city, but he said his ambitions don't stop there. Since the city government has a large restoration project going along with urban landscape work, it means that some of the sites are natural spots for filming, for example, the old town, old residential areas, and nature reserves, which could spare film crews a lot of work in building a studio out of nothing. All these resources are good for filming, so, Zhang intends to do his best to advertise his hometown and attract more filmmakers to set up camp here.