BOGOTA, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) -- Colombia joined the celebration of the Chinese New Year of the Dog with a spectacle of traditional Beijing Opera at the Jorge Tadeo Lozano University on Thursday evening.

The audience revelled in the fusion of painting, singing, dancing, make-up and martial arts that constitutes one of the supreme expressions of Chinese culture.

The Beijing Opera troupe came from the Chinese northeastern city of Tianjin. It is widely recognized as one of the best Beijing Opera troupes in the world and has won prizes at the Beijing Opera Festival six times.

Hong Ju, director of the troupe, told Xinhua that the performance for the Colombian public was very special.

"I am very grateful to be able to present our work at this university, and we greatly appreciate the invitation to celebrate the Chinese New Year. The Year of the Dog has a very significant meaning for us, and we want to bring it to the Colombians," he said.

Hong said that bringing Chinese culture to Latin America is important, as it brought people together and wished them good luck that came with the Chinese Lunar New Year.

Beijing Opera was first brought to Colombia by the university's Confucius Institute.

Enrique Posada, the director of the Confucius Institute at the Jorge Tadeo Lozano University, said that Colombia celebrates the Chinese Lunar New Year every year as part of the growing ties with China.

"The Colombian people are gaining an ever better understanding of China's importance in the world, which is why the celebration of the Lunar New Year is gaining strength every time," he said.

"Colombia must grow closer to China and Asia in general. It must treat China not as a distant and mysterious country, but as a close country which desires cooperation," he added.

Beijing Opera, which has a history of over 200 years, was inscribed on UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2010.