Collections of silk products of China Silk Archives [Photo/Suzhou Daily]

The new Suzhou Archives building, which started its construction on July 10, 2012, is expected to be completed in July and open to the public in November, during which time the construction work on the China Silk Archives building will begin.

The silk archives construction project was approved on July 25, 2013 and preparation work has started ever since. The new building will house the silk-related collections of Suzhou Archives, including 500,000 documents, 310,000 silk samples and around 200 videos.

Staff from the silk archives have so-far procured nearly 5,000 documents and silk products from across the country, including masterpieces of China's best silk craftsmen. The new silk archives building is expected to open to the public in 2017.