Beautiful Xiamen is now on at the National Art Museum of China. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Xiamen, a coastal city in East China's Fujian province, has long been dubbed a "garden on water" for its scenery and distinctive architecture that blends Chinese and Western styles.

Beautiful Xiamen, an exhibition now on at the National Art Museum of China, presents the diversity of natural and cultural surroundings of the city, one of the Chinese mainland's four special economic zones established after the country's reform and opening-up started in the 1970s.

Ink paintings, oil works and watercolor pieces by local artists of different generations are on display at the museum in Beijing.

Among highlights are lacquer paintings that have won artists from Fujian many awards both at home and abroad.

The province boasts a long tradition of making wares of lacquer and other art forms that use it as the main material.

The exhibition runs through April 12.