BEIJING - "The first 'glamorous' woman I saw was in the movie Cleopatra," wrote Yang Lan, known as China's Oprah Winfrey, on her micro blog after the film's star Elizabeth Taylor died on March 23.

Taylor was one of the most well-known Hollywood actresses to Chinese audiences, and her death of congestive heart failure caused a stir in China's media, which generously gave their pages and web space to the celebrated actress.

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The Beijing News, a widely-read newspaper based in the capital, offered a two-page package with the headline "No Dame Any More," tracking her life and acting career.

Detailed biographies, film performances and emotional comments are available on almost all major websites such as sina.com.cn and sohu.com, which had special sections to memorialize the star.

Filmgoers and celebrities, such as Yang, mourned her death in their own ways.

"The four most gorgeous Hollywood actresses have all left this world. First Marilyn Monroe, then Vivien Leigh and Audrey Hepburn and now Taylor," a netizen wrote on an online forum.

"I think Elizabeth Taylor was a straightforward and innocent person," Yang wrote. "To me her eight marriages reveal she is a bold woman dedicated to love. She once said, 'I've only slept with men I've been married to. How many women can make that claim?'"

Yao Chen, a famed actress, wrote on her micro blog: "A woman with violet eyes. She was not the most talented actress, but the most charming one. Her remarkable charisma attracted everyone."

According to film critic Luo Jin, most Chinese filmgoers got to know Taylor through the extravagant Cleopatra. In the 1963 film broadcast on China's CCTV in the 1980s, she played the Queen of Egypt. In a sina.com.cn survey, more than 62 percent of 5,000 respondents choose the film as their favorite among Taylor's works.

"For Chinese people in the 1980s Taylor exemplifies Hollywood stardom," Luo said. "She was stunning as a sexy and dazzling seductress."

In the following years Taylor maintained her recognition in the country, but mainly by news about her private life.

"People around the world, including many Chinese, misunderstand her," Luo says. "People talk about her eight marriages, her beauty, jewelry and charity efforts, but kind of forget her works. As an actress Taylor had no brilliant work after the 1970s, she became a pure 'celebrity'."

Luo insisted that Taylor was a great actress, although that part of her was sometimes overshadowed by gossip. He said he believed most Chinese viewers, especially those who got to know Hollywood pictures after the 1990s, missed the golden age of Taylor.

"What they know about her is actually vague," he said. "If there weren't so many tidbits then more people would realize she was a great actress, not merely a Hollywood celebrity with endless gossip."

Among Taylor's works Luo favors Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, because through that role Taylor inspired a wave of Hollywood's actresses to challenge themselves in their work.

Taylor was 34 at the time, but the role demanded someone to appear as old as 50. Though it might have harmed her image as a superstar, she did not want to miss a good story.

"She put on weight, wrinkles and wig to make herself an ugly woman, but the most amazing thing was she successfully delivered the inner fury and frustration of the role to achieve her pinnacle in acting and a second Oscar," Luo said. "Thanks to her success many Hollywood actresses learned the 'shortcut' to winning acclaim by challenging themselves with ugly roles."