Sample some of da Vinci's genius

A painting by contemporary Chinese artist Pang Xunqin and a Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) bowl with high stem are among the displays.

At the Tsinghua exhibition, Dialog with Leonardo da Vinci, a dozen TV screens will also show 3-D displays of Da Vinci's aircraft and other mechanical inventions.

The exhibition is among the 11 shows being held to mark the official opening of TAM on Sept 11.

Designed by Swiss architect Mario Botta, the TAM occupies 5,000 square meters at the east corner of the Tsinghua campus, making it the biggest college museum in China.

Before the TAM, Tsinghua University, which was founded in 1911, had a room to exhibit archaeological relics, which was opened in 1926.

It was not until 1999 that the Central Academy of Arts and Design was merged with the university, and a museum was proposed to house and display the CAAD's collection of fine art and antiques assembled since its establishment in 1956.

Meanwhile, the plan for the museum got a boost after a donation of 200 million yuan ($30 million) in 2013 from Huang Rulun, a self-made real estate developer and chairman of the Century Golden Resources Group.

The TAM currently has more than 13,000 Chinese paintings, calligraphy works, textiles, porcelain pieces, bronze ware, Ming Dynasty (1368-1644)-style furniture and other works of art, which mainly come from the CAAD's collection and public donations.