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Xiamen City Customs gave thousands of smuggled relics to the Provincial Cultural Relics Administration Committee on Jan.14, the largest such haul in this coastal city in Fujian province and one of east China's Special Economic Zones.

The handover took place at the Xiamen Museum located on the scenic island of Gulangyu.

Among a total of 13,297 precious items were 8,088 ancient coins, and 5,286 cultural articles including paintings, books, jade articles and bronze pieces. It was the most comprehensive haul of smuggled relics by the Xiamen Customs since 1981, according to sources.

The trade in smuggled relics was first intercepted in 1981. It took off in the 1990s when a wealth of stone and wood carvings were concealed in containers to cheat Customs officials.

Xiamen Customs has cracked over 400 smuggling cases in over two and a half decades since 1986, intercepting 15,000 items of ceramics, paintings and calligraphy scrolls, jade, stone and wood carvings and dinosaur egg fossils.

In 1997, the Xiamen Museum set up the largest exhibition area for ancient stone carvings in the province, based on 1000 stone carving relics intercepted by the Customs.

The museum had been greatly substantialized and enriched by the Customs' confiscations, said the museum director.

A public exhibition opened Tuesday showing rare valuable relics from China's ancient imperial dynasties.