US heartland gets taste of Chinese culture

KANSAS CITY, United States－Two women in their 50s stand contemplating in front of Guanyin of the South China Sea, an ancient Chinese sculpture in the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri.

Over the past 20 years, they have been visiting the museum, describing the "mother Buddha" as "beautiful, serene and sublime". "There is a huge Chinese collection here. This (Guanyin) is the most spectacular," they say, hoping to remain in anonymity.

The museum collects more than 7,500 high-quality Chinese works, ranging from ceramics to furniture, and from paintings to sculptures.