A large ink and water painting titled the Yellow Earth Plateau, created by the celebrated Chinese artist Wu Guanzhong sold for 18.7 million yuan at the 2005 China Rongbao Spring Auction Fair.

The painter returned to China from Indonesia and the sale hit a record-high for the artist's ink and water works. Before that, his highest priced painting sold for 6.6 million yuan.

Created in 1987, the Yellow Earth Plateau proved to be a milestone for Wu Guanzhong, marking a change in his painting style. It displays the grandeur and boundlessness of the plateau in north China.

Wu Guanzhong was born in 1919 in Yixing of east China's Jiangsu Province. His early works mainly display the poetic landscape to the south of the Yangtze River, and later his painting style made a change with a group of works displaying the scenes of Yellow Earth Plateau.

(CRI.com May 19, 2005)