A famous traditional Chinese painting by Zhang Daqian will be auctioned Friday in Beijing, with the bottom price of 48 million yuan (5.78 million US dollars), the highest in traditional Chinese paintings.

The information was released by Cai Li, a consultant with Beijing Zhongbang International Auction Group. The group started preparation for the 2005 painting and calligraphy auction at Poly Plaza on Wednesday, according to Fazhi Wanbao, or Legislative News Evening.

The painting, Picture of the 10,000-li Yangtze River, is about one meter high and 34.56 meters wide, according to the paper.

The plaza and auction group have strengthened security measures to safeguard the works, Cai said.

The auction group said the painting has been insured for at least 50 million yuan (6.15 million US dollars), but did not release the exact figure.

The painting, a series of Zhang's paintings of a stretch of the Yangtze River, was done in 1968.

Zhang Daqian, or Chang Da-chien, was born at Neijiang in Sichuan Province in 1899, and is a world-renowned artist of traditional Chinese painting. He died at Taiwan in 1983 at the age of 84.

Source: Xinhua