The China Art Gallery, one of the 10 major construction projects carried out in Beijing in 1959, is situated at 
the eastern end of May 4th Road. It is a national level art gallery focused on displaying, collecting and researching the works arts of the artists in China modern times. Chairman Mao Zedong wrote the name of the gallery. The high multi-eave roof section of the central portion of the building is balanced on both sides by long corridors. The roofs of these structures and the eaves of the wings of the building are embellished with yellow glazed tiles in traditional Chinese style. The creamy brick walls blends harmoniously with the colorful glazed tile decorations on the pillars, giving the entire facade a tasteful appearance.
There are totally 13 exhibition halls in the gallery, and the three collective anti-ultraviolet radiation colors fluorescent lamps are illuminating in the halls. The acreage of the round hall is 480 square meters that is suited for hanging the large-sized art works. The acreages of the east and west side halls in the first floor are 470 square meters respectively that are equipped with large glass exhibition cabinets. While each of the four corner halls cover the area of 500 square meters; The exhibition places of the second and third floors are opposed to the main hall; The new painting collecting storeroom occupies the area of 5,000 square meters. There are, in addition, studios where artists do their own creative works or inspect the works of other artists past and present. The gallery frequently holds exhibitions of Chinese and foreign art.
The art gallery has collected more than 60,000 fine arts works in the modern times and from the folks. Its varieties includes excellent works with different time features and different art styles like Chinese paintings, 
canvases, prints, sculptures, Spring Festival pictures, funnies, picture posters, pencil sketches, iconography, watercolor paintings, varnish paintings. It also includes the folk art works like puppets, shadow play works, paper-cuts, kites, mud toys, embroideries and so on.
The exhibition activities including painting exhibitions, collective painting exhibitions, film exhibitions, calligraphy exhibitions, children’s painting and folk fine works exhibitions are increasing gradually.
In 1998, it held the International Fine Arts Year that won the high praise from all walks of life in society. The annual average visitors is about one million.
