Some 60 Chinese artists left Beijing on Sunday to attend a week-long photography exchange program in Kyushu of Japan.

The delegation is composed of well-known Chinese painters and photographers. Many of them have established their fame in international photo exhibitions.

The artists will spend a week on picture-taking and exchange views with their counterpart in Japan. Their works during the trip will be collected and put on show, after their return to China.

Liu Daiwe, a well-known Chinese painter who heads the delegation, said the program is jointly sponsored by several government and non-governmental organizations in the two countries. It is designed to strengthen bilateral cultural and artistic exchanges and mutual understanding between the two peoples.

(Xinhua News Agency April 3, 2006)