The Library of Congress is the largest library in the United States, and the Chinese Department has a long history of collecting China ancient books. The earliest books in China came from Tongzhi period of Qing Dynasty (1862- 1874) and were presented by the Qing government. The China books in this museum are most famous for their local chronicles. The Chinese collection of the Library of Congress began at 1869. 1869, Emperor Tongzhi of the Qing Dynasty presented 933 volumes of China's thread-bound books to the Library of Congress, which laid the foundation for the construction of the Asia Pavilion. In the 1940s, taking advantage of his work in the Library of Congress, Mr. Zhu compiled the first draft of China Local Records Catalogue in the Library of Congress, which included 2,939 kinds of China local records. Later, it was added one after another. By the end of 1980s, there were more than 4,000 kinds of China local chronicles in the collection. This figure is based on the census records of China in 1970s.