The works, which fall into the over 2000-year-old Suzhou embroidery category, demonstrate such various styles as single- sided, double-sided, flat, crisscross and cut silk. Some of them feature subjects with distinctive Middle East flavor, like eagles, Arabian horses or camels in a desert.

More than 200 visitors attended Thursday's opening ceremony, many of them amazed by the delicacy and elegance of the art.

"This is unique, they are the best I've ever seen ... maybe the best exhibition of 2010," said Ismet Yilmaz, undersecretary of Turkey's Culture and Tourism Ministry.

He told Xinhua that Turkey and China plan to hold a series of activities to promote cultural relations in 2010 and 2011, noting the embroidery show was the "best example" of Turkish-Chinese cultural communication.

Fatina Ayhan, a researcher on art and design at the Ankara- based Gazi University, gazed at an embroidery representation of the Peking Opera facial make-up and muttered "so beautiful" admiringly.

"These are wonderful. Chinese are already at the top of art," she added.

Chinese ambassador in Turkey Gong Xiaosheng said the exhibition was a big event in Chinese and Turkish cultural exchanges.

"The glamor of art is not confined by national boundaries ... China and Turkey used to be connected by the ancient Silk Road, today's embroidery show once again bring us together," said Gong.

Yilmaz told Xinhua Turkey also boasts its own traditional embroidery art, saying the two countries share a close cultural link.

He had a taste of the painstaking work demanded by Suzhou embroidery by sitting down at an unfinished piece of work at the exhibition hall and carefully making several stitches with the help of a Chinese artist.

"This needs tremendous patience," he said.

One of the four major embroidery styles in China, Suzhou embroidery was produced in a large scale during the Song Dynasty ( 960-1279) and became famous for its unique feature of being intricate, elegant and neat in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644).

Some art pieces showed Thursday combine the elements of western arts with Chinese skills, creating a visual impression resembling oil paintings.

The works have been displayed in countries like Jordan, Tunisia, Syria and Saudi Arabia since 2007 and were scheduled to tour three Turkish cities including Samsun, Ankara and Istanbul between March and April, said Yu Jian, cultural counsellor of the Chinese embassy in Turkey.