For some six centuries, the Palace Museum known as the "Forbidden City" housed the imperial residence and the Central Government of China, governing the country in good times and bad.

This month, stories from the ancient palace will be told in an exhibition of oil paintings to mark the 80th anniversary of the founding of the Palace Museum.

Over the past weekend, more than 200 oil paintings have been moved into the Palace Museum. This is the first time the museum has hosted an exhibition of oil paintings, all the work of Jiang Guofang, a painter who specializes in depicting the court life of China's last imperial dynasty.

Jiang Guofang, Painter "Qing Dynasty court life is an universal backdrop for my works. Actually it expresses my memory and my attitudes to history."

It's taken Jiang Guofang decades of hard work to apply the western fine art tradition to the treatment of ancient Chinese court life. Jiang's paintings are filled with a classical aesthetic in his depiction of the young emperor, his concubines and ministers leading their court life and performing their official duties.

The exhibition will open to the public on September the 29th.

(CCTV.com September 22, 2004)