BEIJING -- An exhibition on Marxism will be open to the public every Tuesday to Sunday in Beijing with free admission to commemorate the 200th anniversary of Karl Marx's birth.

The exhibition on Marxism's early spread to China was also held to commemorate the 170th anniversary of the publication of the Communist Manifesto.

It uses pictures, objects, documents and art to depict the hardships during the early stage of Marxism's spread to China and Marxists' solid faith and efforts to save the nation.

A launch ceremony was held on Friday at the Beidahonglou branch of the Beijing Luxun Museum (the New Culture Movement Memorial of Beijing) by the Central Compilation and Translation Bureau and the State Administration of Cultural Heritage.

Marx, born on May 5, 1818, was largely ignored by scholars in his own lifetime, though his social, economic and political ideas gained rapid acceptance after his death in 1883.