A 206-meter oil painting scroll made by 206 Chinese veteran painters hopes to win the Guinness World record as the world's longest oil painting works.

The painting scroll depicts a Chinese history of 206 years, starting from the birth of Genghis Khan (1162-1227), who founded the ancient Mongolia empire, and whose grandson Kublai Khan established the imperial Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368), to the downfall of the dynasty.

It took more than a year for the painters to complete the painting scroll, which comprises 137 parts that form an integrated whole, said Wang Yanqing, a chief designer of the painting on Friday.

The painting has three main divisions. The first portrays the life of Genghis Khan, the second the period following his death and the founding of the imperial Yuan Dynasty, and the third depicts the rise and fall of the Yuan Dynasty.

The Mongolian Steppe was unified under Genghis Khan in 1206, when he became the Great Khan. In his later years, from 1218 to 1223, Genghis Khan launched his first westward expedition, during which his cavalry, using newly invented gunpowder and arms and weaponry obtained from China and West Liao State then, annihilated Khwarezm, conquered Kankly, and overran the Kipchak steppe and Russian plains. And Kublai Khan, grandson of Genghis, unified the whole of China and founded the Yuan Dynasty, which lasted from 1271 to 1368.

The painting scroll will be on display at the autonomous regional art gallery of Inner Mongolia in early April and will then be kept at the cemetery of Genghis Khan in Erdos, a very popular city in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

(Xinhua News Agency March 25, 2005)