First China (Tongling) Int'l Bronze Sculpture Exhibition

My journey to Tongling began Saturday morning with a two and a half hour flight from Beijing to Hefei, the capital city of Anhui province, along with a small team of CRI reporters.

Once we arrived at the airport in Hefei we then took a two and a half hour bus ride to Tongling. It was a great ride through a part of China most people never get a chance to see.

We passed rice farm after rice farm watching farmers walk across the land engaged in various tasks. I felt like I was witnessing something from a different period of China's history, a time when it still remained untouched from the outside world.

As soon as the bus crossed the busy Yangtze River we quickly entered the city of Tongling. Although it may be one of China's smaller cities, with a mere population of 740,000, it is definitely one of its more important ones in that it is known as China's Ancient Bronze Capital. Copper mining is everything here, along with gold, silver, tin, and iron.

Monday marked the opening of the First China (Tongling) International Sculpture Exhibition which is being held at the International Copper Sculpture Park. To kick things off, Li Ming, the mayor of Tongling, greeted the crowd filled with reporters from various Chinese news agencies along with the artists themselves who are visiting from all over the world.

The overcast weather and grey skies did little to dampen the mood and spirit of the event; an international celebration of art and bronze. For a city this size to host an event such as this was rather impressive. Although I don't know much about sculpting but judging from everything that was on display today I didn't feel alienated or dumbfounded. Each piece throughout the park was carefully handpicked and I found all of the works to be just as equally interesting. At the end the closing of the ceremony, Bernard F. Hosey, a US/Canadian artist, delivered a moving and inspiring speech about how he was inspired as an artist by the famous Chinese poet Li Bai, who died in the nearby Yangtze River while trying to embrace the reflection of the moon. It was a fitting and appropriate way to begin an outdoor celebration of art and bronze in the small mountain city otherwise known as the birthplace of China's bronze civilization.

Other artists such as Lilya Pobornikova from Bulgaria, Ayla Turan from Turkey, Xuxo Vazquez Pardo from Spain, and Jo Kley from Germany, and Hock Auh Teh from the United Kingdom all mingled with the crowd as they represented their art, and in some ways I guess their country.

Later on Li Ming and the Party Chief and Municipal People's Congress Chairman Yao Yuzhou walked throughout the park admiring the international bronze sculptures on display.

Over the next few days in Tongling, bronze sculpting will be celebrated and admired by people from all over China and different parts of the world. This is the first time the city of Tongling has been asked to host the event, and so far the city has done an excellent job. The next few days will be filled with small seminars and exhibits all designed to celebrate the artistic beauty of bronze. The event itself is the perfect way to enjoy a city very few foreigners know anything about.