Ye Hong, Deputy Manager of Beijing-based Meisong Gallery, has seen this transformation process up close. As the gallery mainly deals with oil paintings of a French artist, Ye has watched as the lukewarm attitude of local patrons in the gallery's early days has changed to an appreciation of the canvases by the same clientele.

"More and more Chinese mainlanders tend to decorate their houses or offices with oil paintings and modern artwork, and many of our clients are movie stars or celebrities in other fields," she said.

The thriving art market in China also shows that Chinese culture and art have attracted international attention as the country's national strength has grown, said Kwok Ho-mun, founder of Wan Fung Art Gallery, one of the biggest investors and promoters of contemporary Chinese paintings. This is clearly shown by high prices being fetched for Chinese artwork in recent years, especially for contemporary works.

For example, Son, the works of Beijing painter Liu Xiaodong, was sold for 154,000 yuan ($18,600) in 2000, but when it was resold in an auction in 2005, the price was 1.98 million yuan ($244,500), a tenfold increase in five years.

A similar case happened to well-known Chinese painter Zhang Xiaogang, whose work was sold for around $10,000 in 1999, yet in the Sotheby's spring auction in New York in 2007, one of his paintings was bought for $980,000.

Indeed, after about 20 years of development, China's contemporary art has gained a good reputation domestically and internationally. More and more Chinese are now appreciating the art as collectors. Sotheby's has even set up an independent department dealing with contemporary Chinese art.

"The contemporary art from China is the most favorite of collectors at various international auction houses, followed by art from India and then from Russia," said Lin Jiaru, Director of Sotheby's Chinese Contemporary Art Department.

Guan Yi, a Beijing-based collector, is one of the contemporary Chinese art fans in China. Guan collects contemporary artwork, especially large-scale works, but not just for investment. His collection began back in 2001, before Chinese contemporary art became popular, and has grown to such an extent that he built a 2,000-square-meter warehouse in 2004 (now renovated into a museum) to house his hundreds of pieces.

But unlike collector Guan, many business persons have already cashed in on this rising market. And now, more and more art galleries from outside the Chinese mainland are entering the market, eager to get a slice of the art market pie.

Emile Forg, owner of the ESP's Arts Gallery from France, is one of them. Hoping to find a partner to help contract artists for his gallery in China, Mr. Forg participated in the 10th Beijing International Art Exposition held on July 12-16.

Launched in 1998, the Beijing International Art Exposition, one of the leading and authoritative art fairs in China, reflects the growth and rise of China's art market. According to official statistics, visitors to the 2003 session totaled 40,000 and the transaction volume was 15 million yuan ($1.8 million), while in 2006, the number of visitors rose to 60,000, spending 80 million yuan ($10 million).

The prosperous art market has inspired many young artists in China. Dai Zhong, a 34-year-old painter, rented a space at the July art exposition in Beijing to exhibit his paintings. This is the first time he has shown his works in public.

Although believing that the current bullish art market is something superficial and some painters' works are selling only because of their fame, rather than their art value, Dai still believes that the increasing interest in art by Chinese is good for the development of artists.

"After all, no economy, no art," Dai smiles. He has also planned to hold personal painting exhibitions next year in Beijing and other cities across the country.

As to the potential bubble in the market that many critics are concerned about, Chen Zhong, supervisor of the Marketing Department of 51-art.com under the Artron Culture Development Co. Ltd., one of the influential art websites in China, is not so pessimistic. He thinks that the main problem now is just that the market is not mature enough.

"This is caused partly by the unprofessional judgment of some collectors, " he said. "The prices of some masterpieces have not matched their due value, while prices of some mediocre works are out of range."

That will no doubt change.