Workers replaced the portrait of late Chinese leader Chairman Mao Zedong that hangs above the gate to the Forbidden City with a brand-new replica at wee hours Sunday.

The former portrait was damaged by Gu Haiou, a 35-year-old unemployed from Urumqi, capital of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, at around 5:46 PM Saturday.

The Forbidden City, which was temporarily closed, is open on Sunday. Visitors are also allowed to the Tian'anmen Rostrum, where Mao declared the founding of New China in 1949.

Gu hurled a self-made burning object to the portrait, causing a slight burn mark in the lower left part of the portrait, said the Beijing Public Security Bureau.

Gu, who was once treated in a mental disease hospital in Urumqi last year and arrived in Beijing at noon on Saturday, is still under interrogation by the police.

The damaged portrait, six meters high, five meters wide and weighing about two tons, is a reproduction of the fourth edition of Mao's portrait that has hung at the historic spot since New China was founded in 1949.

The first edition painted in 1949 showed Mao wearing a military uniform and a cap. The second edition, hung between 1950 and 1952, showed Mao in a green suit. The third edition, painted in the 1950s by portraitist Zhang Zhenshi, was put up between 1953 and 1968.

(Xinhua News Agency May 14, 2007)