HOARDER says old stuff brings back so many memories

Zhang Haochang's home on Minhang's Cangyuan Road could be mistaken for a small private museum because of all the collected memorabilia it contains.

As Zhang, 63, rummages through it all, he stops to share memories triggered by this item or that.

Zhang married Chen Jinying on January 26, 1978, at the Luyangcun Restaurant on Nanjing Road W. in downtown Shanghai. He still has the receipt from the banquet. It's old but the details are still legible. The wedding feast for four tables came to 157 yuan (US$24 in today's money).

"How cheap it is compared with the price of a current wedding banquet!" Chen says with a sigh. "Nowadays, 150 yuan would buy only a dish or two. I remember we had chicken, duck, shrimp and pork."

Another memento is a pile of notebooks with black covers, which are no longer common but were ubiquitous in the past. There, Zhang recorded every financial transaction dating back to 1970.

Opening one notebook randomly, he finds purchases such as 500 grams of cabbage, a half-kilo of yellow croaker fish, a piece of youtiao (a deep-fried dough stick typically eaten for breakfast), a bottle of water and four batteries. The notebook also shows purchases of furniture and home appliances. Even sums for yasuiqian -- gift money given to children during the Chinese New Year - are faithfully recorded.

Each entry documents items, dates and prices.

"Not a single day was ever missed since 1970," Zhang says with a certain pride.

The record also shows expenses totaled up on a monthly basis. In 1979, the family income was 2,027 yuan. In 2010, it was 57,805 yuan.

Zhang's notebooks also record sports scores of favorite teams over the years.

Each letter the couple wrote or received over the years is also recorded by date and correspondent. The letters include those written to celebrities asking them for autographs on the backs of envelopes. There are also stamps featuring those celebrities.

Chen proudly shows off the envelopes. There are dozens of them.

"See, here are the signatures of Zhu Jianhua and Wang Guangmei!" he enthuses.

Zhu is a former high jumper who was China's first male athlete to win a medal in the Olympics, at the 1984 Games in Los Angeles. Wang was a respected Chinese politician, philanthropist and wife of late Chinese President Liu Shaoqi. The family's archive also includes bonds issued in 1912, stock issued by a match factory in 1933 and some RMB notes issued by the Chinese government in 1955. There is also a 1970s map of Beijing.

So much paper. So many memories.

There are yellowed tickets from buses, ferries, stadiums and cinemas. All have been meticulously catalogued in folders.

Zhang has even saved candy wrappers from his childhood and a report card from his kindergarten days.

All this history is stored in a large cupboard in the couple's apartment.

"I am loath to part with all this old stuff," Zhang said. "So I save everything. I never expected it all to become such a treasure. I will pass it all on to my son."

Zhang began collecting stamps when he was nine years old. He has also collected coins.

"Collecting stamps is my favorite," he said, pointing out stamps featuring the late Princess Diana.

Zhang and Chen admitted they have a load of work ahead of them for the archive project. "It will take some time, but we will do a thorough job," Zhang said.

Ticket collector travels far and wide

Wang Zhigen, a resident on Minhang's Huaping Road, has been documenting his way through life by saving tickets.

The fruits of his labor are much in evidence in his apartment. Six albums are neatly ordered on the table. No photos here.

Wang, now in his 60s, reckons he has more than 20,000 tickets, and the six albums represent just a slice of that collection. More are stashed in cupboards and have yet to be sorted.

The tickets were bought for entry into famous homes, parks and zoos, old towns and villages, pagodas, waterfalls, museums and China's world heritage sites, to name but a few.

In the albums, Wang has accompanied each ticket with a description of the event or place it marks. Wang said he has travelled extensively around China. He has the tickets to prove it. He started collecting tickets about 20 years ago.

"One day, the idea of collecting tickets struck me all of a sudden because I thought it would be a fun experience," he says.

At first, he collected tickets only in Shanghai, then, as he expanded his travels, he expanded his collection. He is passionate and proud about what he calls his "treasure."

"Each ticket has a story," he says.

His favorites are the tickets of patriotic sites. He has two books listing all the sites in two batches. Each contains 100 spots. His search is based on books.

"See, you can find the tickets of all the spots listed in the books!" he says.

He spent three-and-a-half years collecting the tickets of the first batch. On the list are Tiananmen Square, Dong Cunrui Memorial Hall, Shanghai Museum and Lei Feng Memorial Hall, among others.

He still remembers that the last ticket he collected was from the Wang Jinxi Memorial Hall in Daqing, Heilongjiang Province. Wang was an oil driller who worked on China's largest oilfield in Daqing.

The second batch took Wang less time to collect. When he opened the folder, he started telling the stories of the Long March of the Red Army in 1934 and 1935. His tickets relate to sites along that route.

He has also tickets from visits to the Xichang Satellite Launch Center exhibition and the National Aquatic Center from the 2008 Olympics.

Wang's favorite collection is a set of 26 platform tickets, which comprise a complete picture of the "Along the River During the Qingming Festival" - one of the most famous national treasures of China.

He also exchanges tickets with other collectors. "If you are careful enough and are really interested in collecting tickets, it is not a difficult task," he says.