A display of stamps decorated with pictures of musical instruments from all over the world opened to the public in Beijing last week.

Over one thousand stamps depicting hundreds of different kinds of musical instruments from more than one hundred countries are on display.

The stamps are the collection of philatelist Shi Hegao.

The stamps are exhibited alongside thirty physical musical instruments in the Arts Salon Hall, National Center For the Performing Arts.

The exhibition is coordinated by Beijing Musical Instrument Institute and National Center for the Performing Arts. It will run until March 24.

The first stamp was made in the United Kingdom on May 6, 1840. A musical instrument appeared on a stamp for the first time in 1859 in Germany.

"Now there are more than 40,000 sorts of music instruments played in different parts of the world," said Chen Ziming, director of the World Folk Music Society, the institute of Musicology of the Central Conservatory of Music.