China's largest ever non-official exhibition of jade items opened on Tuesday in Beijing, with some 300 rare ancient jade artifacts on display.

A jade galloping dear, produced during the Tang Dynasty (618-907), is displayed at China's largest non-official exhibition of jade items. The show opened in Beijing on Tuesday, October 9, 2007.

China News Services reports that the individual collections span more than 6,000 years, from the Neolithic or New Stone Age around 4000 BC to the end of the Qing Dynasty in 1911.

The exhibits feature items from Qijia Culture from northwest China's Shaanxi and Gansu provinces, Hongshan Culture from northeast China, and Liangchu Culture from the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River.

The Ancient Jade Research Institute, organizer of the exhibition, hopes to create a forum for academic exchanges through displaying the individual collections.

A legendary animal sculpture from the Han Dynasty (206 B.C.-220 A.D.) is shown at China's largest non-official exhibition of jade items which opened in Beijing on Tuesday, October 9, 2007.

(CRI.cn October 10, 2007)