The Tai’an Branch of the Confucius Painting Studio opened Nov 17 at Boya Classic Hotel in Tai'an during the hotel's opening ceremony. Government officials and leaders of municipal cultural institutions attended the ceremony.

The Confucius Painting Studio, registered at the Ministry of Civil Affairs, is an institution voluntarily organized by painters and fans of paintings at home and abroad. The studio has been dedicated to publications and other promotions of traditional Chinese paintings and Confucian theories for many years. The branch studio was hailed as a new cultural landmark for Tai'an.

Boya Classic Hotel is part of the "Boya Residence" tertiary industry project introduced by the Zhoudian subdistrict office of Tai'an in 2008. With a total investment of more than 30 million yuan ($4.5 million) and covering an area of 6,000 square meters, "Boya Residence" is a large-scale project for entertainment and conferences. Since its first day of operations in August 2009, the first phase of the project has realized a total income of 20 million yuan ($3 million) and generated taxes totaling 2 million yuan ($301,000). It also provided at least 200 jobs to local residents.

The construction of the second phase of the project, Boya Classic Hotel, began in May, with an investment of more than 20 million yuan ($3 million). The new hotel and new branch of the Confucius Painting Studio will bring social, cultural and business benefits to the Daiyue district in downtown Tai’an, officials said.

By Audrey and Chen Zhilin