The UN Headquarters in New York for the United States, the London Bridge for Britain, the Eiffel Tower for France and Orthodox churches for Russia!

If you think these landmarks or images are obvious symbols of their countries, then how do you depict Kenya? A colony of flamingos! And the person who has done that on rice paper is none other 83-year-old Huang Yongyu, one of China's most famous artists. 

Tsinghua University art professor Yuan Yunfu, too, has created a fine work of art: the Great Wall. Needless to say it symbolizes China.

These are some of the excellent works that more than 200 artists from across China have come together to create. They have put their thoughts and artistic brilliance into 200 traditional Chinese paintings to represent the 192 member states of the UN.

Their works will go on display at the "One World" exhibition in Beijing on April 28.

But it's not only the well-known landmarks and architectures that feature in these paintings, for landscapes, folk customs, national flowers and birds, too, find place in many of the works.

From the National Art Museum of China in Beijing, the exhibition will travel to the UN office in Geneva in July and then to its headquarters in New York as a prelude to the 2008 Olympic Games. The paintings will also be showcased in the capitals of more than 10 countries across the five continents.

The Olympic athletes will be presented with the exhibition catalogues through which they can learn about Chinese painting and the characteristic features of the 192 countries, said Feng Yuan, vice-president of the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles (CFLAC).

The Information Office of the State Council, CFLAC and the Chinese Artists' Association are the joint organizers of the paintings and the exhibitions.

"As part of the great event (2008 Olympics), Chinese artists have expressed the wishes of their peace-loving people to help build a world of harmony and peaceful coexistence," Feng said.

(China Daily April 19, 2007)