Contemporary artists are narrating stories about China's ancient Grand Canal with their art pieces at an ongoing exhibition in the Beijing Times Art Museum.

Entitled "The Common Space –The Grand Canal Narrative of The Post Intangible- Heritage Era," the exhibition features more than 30 works from 26 Chinese artists. Xu Bing who's been known for writing English system "square word calligraphy," and famous performance artist Bai Chongmin are some of the participating artists.

The art pieces include paintings, sculptures, installations, videos, multimedia, and VR technology – all with the elements of the Grand Canal. "We hope more young people will be attracted to the exhibition through this way," said Zhao Yan, curator of the museum, during an event promoting the exhibit in late October. 

Constructed in 486 B.C., the Grand Canal is the world's longest and oldest canal. It's 15 times longer than the Suez Canal and 32 times longer than the Panama Canal. This year marks the fifth anniversary since the Grand Canal became a World Heritage site.

The exhibition, which took about one and half a month to prepare, is designed in pretty interactive and different ways.

Artist Fei Jun created an intelligent interactive zone where visitors can "transplant" 25 bridges across China to the bridges in Venice with a special App installed on the cellphones at the exhibition. Mr. Fei explained that he hopes his work inspires visitors in terms of thinking about relations between cultural heritage and modern life.

Another representative art piece comes from Xu Bing who uses water of the Grand Canal to present his signature "square word calligraphy."

"The water gradually evaporated while Xu was writing. He recorded the whole process in the video we see on display here. He is telling a story of time with Zen Buddhism and philosophy," Zhao Fang, executive director of the museum told CGTN.

The exhibition runs until November 27.

(Video by Yu Yingtian)