Performances and artist shows from more than 80 countries will crowd the Beijing stages and exhibition centers during the time leading up to and around the August Olympic Games.

From March to September, more than 20,000 artists both from home and abroad would stage 260 performances and nearly 160 visual exhibitions in Beijing to mark the Olympics, a spokesman with the China's Ministry of Culture said Tuesday.

The domestic part of the activities, which began on March 20, will stage over 170 dramas, symphonies, Chinese operas, acrobatics, ethnic musical shows and non-material cultural heritage exhibitions.

Performances from foreign countries will feature evening parities dedicated to Asian, African, Latin American and Arabian cultures, world classic music, dances and dramas, creative modern arts, as well as Olympic-related arts performances and exhibitions.

The months-long event would be a cultural pageant in Beijing, and it would build an artistic platform for countries to better understand each other, and convey to all the Beijing Olympics' message of "One World, One Dream," said Assistant Cultural Minister Ding Wei.

(Xinhua News Agency April 8, 2008)