Belgian artist leaves colorful impression on Shanghai

One five-story residential building in Shanghai's Pudong New District stands out from the others nearby, as it features a colorful mural of a little boy looking into the distance through a pair of binoculars.

"It's a bit mysterious, because onlookers don't know what the boy is looking at. It appears that he's looking into the future, but he is the only one who can see what his future looks like," said Bart Smeets from Belgium, the creator of the mural.

Smeets, 39, was among 15 artists from around the world invited to Shanghai to paint on walls at schools and on streets as part of a corporate social responsibility project with a theme of child care and animal protection. "My style is mostly photorealistic, but at the same time, I want to create something with a sense of fantasy because it's about children," the independent artist said on May 19, shortly before the piece was completed.