China’s rich literary past is to be celebrated in a new Beijing museum boasting 2.75m books, made up of cultural classics from across the past millennium.

After two years of careful restoration in a heavily-guarded warehouse, the collection of China’s finest literature will now go on show at the new National Museum of Classic Books in Beijing.

Established by the National Library of China, the star exhibit is the world's only remaining manuscript of "Zizhi Tongjian," a pioneering reference work in Chinese historiography, compiled by Sima Guang nearly 1,000 years ago.

"Everything is very precious, such as Sima Guang's manuscript. This is the ancient world, like so many important oracles, such as Si Ku, the Yongle Dunhuang calligraphers, all are very precious, very rare," Li Honglin, National Museum of Classic Books deputy director, told State media.

The 2.75m copies of Chinese classics were all published before 1911 and include metal and stone rubbings, rare books and old maps. The 800 most precious works have been put on display as an opening gift for visitors – who can also take the opportunity to make their own rubbings and print out official scripts.

The first exhibition, expected to run for approximately three months, will begin receiving groups of visitors from 1 August, while individual visitors can enter from 9 September.