Landscapes of Guilin, Africa and Myanmar have fired Su Ning's artistic vision

He says he set out from Xinjiang like a camel on the Silk Road. He was assigned to work in oilfields in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region upon graduation from university in 1996 and traveled all the way to Sudan in Africa in 2001, where he worked as the foreign affairs manager for several oil projects for eight years. In his spare time, he drew pictures of what he saw. This is one side of the self-portrait drawn by Su Ning, a painter, writer and scholar in his 40s.

After Sudan he came back to his hometown of Guilin, a tourist resort known for its picturesque karst landforms in Southwest China's Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region. He then took up the same post of foreign affairs manager for oil pipeline project in Myanmar in 2012. Visiting the Southeast Asian nation often proved to be a golden opportunity for Su to gather creative ideas for his art.

The government of Myanmar invited Su to Yangon for the overseas launch ceremony for his book, Buddhist Flower of Myanmar, which is collected in the Myanmar National Library. Su also introduced the first Chinese-language book on Myanmar painting to China. He is committed to promoting artistic and cultural exchanges to strengthen the traditional "Paukphaw" friendship between China and Myanmar.