The sixth annual Chinese Painting Festival got underway in Weifang, East China's Shandong province, on April 17, hosting the finest examples of culturally exquisite Chinese brush strokes.

Weifang is known as China's city of painting and has played host to the event for all six years of its duration. This year's festival is themed "culture and art for the sake of people", and features 10 exhibition areas with the highest level of Chinese paintings on show.

"The Chinese painting festival has showcased the greatest achievements in contemporary Chinese paintings," said Liu Dawei, chairman of the China Artists Association and the vice-president of the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles, who spoke at the opening ceremony.

In the academic exhibition section, visitors can enjoy more than 600 pieces of dedicated works by members of the Chinese Painting Institute, reflecting creativity style in contemporary China.

In addition, Jiang Mingxian, a distinguished artist from Taiwan, has 66 pieces on display, the most unique of which is his 36-meter long painting of New Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains.

"Different from the original version of Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains painted by Huang Gongwang (1269-1354) in the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368), the new version of painting depicts the scenery and development along the Fujiang River over the last 30 years after the reform and opening-up," said Jiang.

Along with the painting festival, the eighth China (Weifang) Culture and Art Fair and the second China (Weifang) Folk Art Fair were also held in the Shandong-Taiwan Convention and Exhibition Center.

A visitor views the Chinese paintings displayed at the sixth Chinese Painting Festival. [Photo by Wang Qian/chinadaily.com.cn]