CHENGDU -- A three-day ink painting exhibition featuring works of Du Fu (AD 712-770), one of China's greatest poets, started Friday in the Du Fu Thatched Cottage Museum in this capital of Southwest China's Sichuan Province.

On display are more than 70 paintings of 14 top Chinese ink painters including Zhao Meisheng and Lu Muxun. It is the first time that China's top ink painters have exhibited their works featuring the same subject, said Wang Jin, deputy chief of the Chengdu Municipal Bureau of Culture.

The bureau and the Du Du Thatched Cottage Museum are co-sponsors of the exhibition.

Du Fu Thatched Cottage Museum is dedicated to Du whose poems are included in school textbooks, and any student of Chinese literature should be acquainted with his works.

A native of Gongxian in Central China's Henan Province, Du moved to Chengdu in AD 759 to take refuge from a war fought between two rebelling generals that led to the decline of the lustrous Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907). He lived a peaceful life for about four years in a cottage he built in the western suburbs of the city, writing 240 of his 1,400 poems.

Du's poems are known for sympathetic portrayals of human suffering and bitterness in the face of injustice and corruption.

Today, Du's cottage has become a museum which includes a replica of his thatched cottage built in 1997 according to the description of his poetic works.

The museum has become the sacred land of Chinese literature and visiting it is a must for most first-time visitors to Chengdu.

Strolling leisurely in the museum grounds, visitors can enjoy the aura of ancient culture, as well as tranquility in the bamboo groves, away from the urban jungle.