The longest epic poem in contemporary Chinese language was released in May.

The Chinese Epic, written by Hua Wenfeng and published by Writers Publishing House, is a three-volume entity of poems totaling 40,716 lines. The ambitious literary creation equals Dante's The Divine Comedy and Homer's The Iliad and The Odyssey in number of lines, says Hua.

Hua, who is also a civil servant at Qingdao municipal government, Shandong province, says he spent six years writing the work.