BUCHAREST, Feb. 3 -- A one-month-long exhibition of Chinese Culture organized by the Confucius Institute in Bucharest on the occasion of the incoming Year of the Sheep opened on Tuesday in the Parliament Palace in Bucharest.

Chinese paintings, calligraphy, music, stamp collections, Chinese porcelain, embroidery, historical items that reflect the centuries-old Chinese culture as well Xinhua photos depicting the daily life in nowadays China, are being shown at the exhibition.

The new Chinese ambassador to Bucharest Xu Feihong, in his first speech in public in Romania, mentioned the decades-long relation between Romania and China, and the Chinese people's appreciation for the Romanian folk music. He emphasized that, in order to understand China, people need learn Chinese and learn about the Chinese culture.

State Secretary for Ministry of Culture of Romania, Bogdan Stanoevici, said that "all contacts with the Chinese culture touch deep."

"We are familiar with China's economic story - perhaps less so with its culture," Stanoevici told the opening ceremony.

Mircea Dumitru, the Rector of the University of Bucharest who helped set up the Confucius Institute in Bucharest, said that his university "took up the effort of making known one of the ancient civilizations of the world from which any other country has a lot to learn."

He made clear that "knowing a culture means knowing the language of that culture in order to have access to the spiritual dimension of that culture, as spirituality is what really transcends time."

"We decided that Confucius Institute must not only teach Chinese language but also disseminate aspects of the Chinese culture and on the other hand, as a mutual benefit, aspects of the Romanian culture in China," said the rector, stressing the major importance of cultural diplomacy.

Fang Shuan, a Chinese undergraduate of the Romanian National University of Music, sang 2 songs, one in Chinese and one in Romanian.

A young Chinese girl played a traditional song on the Guzheng, a Chinese type of Zither. Her song reminded of Vivaldi's seasons and one could easily imagine the rivers flowing, slowly at the beginning, then in whirlpools down the river, and a variety of birds singing in different voices, and the nature reviving in spring.

Dressed up in traditional Chinese costumes of many colors and diverse patterns, 25 students from the Chinese Department of the University of Bucharest sang a famous Chinese song "Dance of Youth".

Alexandru, an academic who said has organized the first Chinese culture exhibition in Romanian in 1980 in the Museum of Art Collections, tried his hand at Chinese calligraphy, helped by a Chinese girl, and copied perfectly well the pictogram of the sheep which he proudly takes back home.

Razvan, a young graduate of economic studies, closely studied the Art of War, a Chinese treatise of war written by Sun Tzu on wooden planks, in the 6th century BC, a document of great influence on the Chinese military thinking and business tactics.

Razvan spent time in front of several items, and said: "They were so advanced thousands of years ago!".

The tea ceremony table also attracts a lot of visitors. A Chinese young lady, explained the significance of the three types of cups: the tall one to smell, the low one to taste and the bigger one to drink.

Although Chinese tea can be found in shops in Romania, people are jostling here to drink it.