Art has arrived in Shezhen in a big way.

Featuring nine projects, more than 80 artists and 1,000 works, the city's "Map of Arts" -- which is sponsored by the city's cultural and publicity departments -- represents the largest collection of high-caliber art in Shenzhen's history.

Among the projects are a forum for Chinese ink painting in the global context, the Fifth Shenzhen International Public Art Exhibition, the Second National Exhibition of Traditional Chinese Paintings, Designs from Shenzhen for 2003 and The Image of the Image -- an exhibit of contemporary oil paintings.

The four venues for the displays are Guan Shanyue Art Museum, Shenzhen Art Museum, He Xiangning Art Gallery and Shenzhen Fine Art Institute.

Today is the last day that art lovers can view a highlight of the event, a 7.3-meter-long painting at the Shenzhen Art Museum entitled The River on the Pure Brightness Festival. The work, which has never been publicly displayed before, is a re-creation of a namesake painting from the 15th century. It is larger than its prototype and has 1,600 characters instead of the 550 in the original.

(Shenzhen Daily December 12, 2003)