Following two months of renovation and remodeling, the Guangzhou Art Gallery's Zhongyuan Building at Yuexiu Hill will reopen at the end of May. The gallery will make available to the general public displays of more than 100 precious steles with calligraphic inscriptions that were previously gathering dust and cobwebs in storage. The Gallery has also been converted to provide areas for the display of Natural history and Guangzhou historic trade artifacts for the Guangzhou Museum.

In July 2004, the 47-year-old Guangzhou Art Gallery was merged into the Guangzhou Museum, which is located near by. Following the merger, the Guangzhou Art Gallery ceased to be a gallery and underwent a major renovation to cope with new exhibits. In just a few days, visitors will be able to enjoy two brand-new exhibitions: "The History of the Earth and the Evolution of Life" and "Precious Artifacts from Ancient Maritime Trade".

The 116-meter-long stele corridor of the Guangzhou Art Gallery, which is the highlight of the renovation, contains 118 inscriptions in a broad range of calligraphic styles by accomplished calligraphers from the Jin to Qing dynasties; and, 58 other historic inscriptions, written during the Qing Dynasty, at the time of the Opium Wars, by 113 wealthy merchants, high-ranking officials, prominent politicians and leading scholars.

The former owner of the steles took great pains to collect writings by celebrated calligraphers and hired Meizhou carving Master Deng Huanping to etch the collected handwritings into first-rate stone from Duanzhou. Deng spent 37 years etching the writings onto more than 1,000 steles, 176 of which remain today after over 150 years of wear and tear.

Editor: Yan