China's centuries-old Huizhou culture is catching the eye of the world with an on-going international folk arts gala held in Huangshan, a city in east China's Anhui Province where the culture developed.

The 6th China International Folk Arts Festival, the largest in the country, kicked off Saturday and has drawn nearly 500 professional and amateur artists from more than 20 countries.

The Huizhou culture was well-known in a historical period running from the Southern Song Dynasty (1127 - 1279) to the Qing Dynasty (1644 - 1911) for its merchants, architecture, cuisine, seal cutting, opera, medicine, and a famous Confucian school of idealist philosophy of the Song (960 - 1279) and Ming (1368 – 1644) dynasties.

The culture, a typical example of Chinese culture in late farming era of Chinese history, once created splendid historical achievements, with its great number of talents in many fields such as philosophy, opera, arts, and trade.

Most significantly, the famous Beijing Opera developed the Huizhou opera. When the opera was performed in Beijing two centuries ago, it won the appreciation of the then China's Emperor Qianlong (1711-1799) of the Qing Dynasty.

Sonia Amelio, a Mexican dancer who has visited China for six times, said Huangshan is very well preserved and has beautiful ancient residential buildings.

"The variegated, unsophisticated and elegant buildings are a good match to the natural scenery of the Huangshang Mountain," she said.

Meanwhile, the descendants of the Huizhou merchants, presented themselves as open-minded, natural, intelligent and eager to help, he said.
 
(Xinhua News Agency October 4, 2004)