Yu Liuliang, manager of Shanghai Nanquan Folk Collection Store, rents two coffers in the People's Bank of China to keep his ancient coins, which are uninsurable. He says his fear of theft prevents them from being exhibited more.

Among all the things that can be collected, coins and stamps are most at risk, for they can be bought and sold in markets and can be stolen and carried away easily.

Such a case occurred in 1989. A famous coin collector, Chen Fugen, lost his expensive collection which was found a year later to have been stolen by a journalist at Wenhui Daily. Fortunately, all the coins were retrieved.

During the last six months, 15 collectors have moved into Duolun Road at the invitation of Hongkou District Culture Bureau. One is Peng Xuewei, a collector of tourism souvenirs. A stranger recently broke into his exhibition gallery when Peng's 14-year-old son was there alone.

Peng complains the government does not care about their collections. He says the guardians of Duolun Road sit idle every day doing nothing at all while policemen have come at least five times to ask each of them to buy a 6,000-odd-yuan ($720) burglar-alarm bell.

Collectors on Duolun Road are troubled by other things. They open their galleries every day to visitors, which means the gallery owners must be available almost all the time. Guo Chunxiang, the most famous newspaper collector in Shanghai, says newspapers can be so easily taken away that either his wife, a laid-off worker, or he must be there watching. That deprives him of many opportunities of searching for more items for his collection.

But compared with pensioner Lan Xiang, who collects chopsticks, Guo is still lucky. Lan bought a house on Duolun Road at a price of more than 6,000 yuan ($723) a square metre. But electricity fees have become a great burden. He had thought the share he would get from ticket sales - 0.3-0.5 yuan (3.6-6 cents) - would help, but he gets very few customers. What's more, some people just go straight in without paying, and Lan is too kind to keep them out. Lan used to write books to help pay for his collection, b

ut now he is too busy with the gallery to do that.

Most collectors on Duolun Road are appealing to the government for more advertising, to help attract more visitors, but they have seen few results. And collector's associations, which should be their biggest advocates, haven't been much help either.

Most associations in Shanghai do not keep contact with one another. Associations members have very few chances to meet and communicate and many groups are run by several promoters only, says Wu Shaohua, chairman of Shanghai Collectors Association.