Born in Shanghai, China, he immigrated to Peru in 1985. From a young age, he always loved painting. Influenced by Western painting styles, especially impressionism, Yan Jianping devoted nearly ten years to doing outdoor sketches of streets, rivers, and the Shanghai Bund with self-taught techniques. He often wento to numerous cities around China including Hangzhou, Suzhou, Qingdao, Xi'an, Luoyang, Chongqing, and Chengdu, where he produced over a thousand different works. In the 1970's, Yan Jianping became a student of Mr. Liu Haisu, a Chinese painting master.