A "Broadway" will be built in the Chinese capital starting next year, the Beijing Daily reported on Tuesday.

A 600,000 sq m-complex, the "Creative Beijing" park, will be jointly developed by local real-estate developer Shibo Investment Holding and the Sino-U.S. joint venture, Beijing Oriental Broadway, the report said.

The project in the Haidian District is scheduled to begin at the end of next year and finish within five years. The area will include 32 musical theaters, including a flagship hall able to seat 2,000 people and 30 smaller venues able to seat 300 to 500 people.

The park will become "a Chinese Broadway base for composers, writers, performers and actors in training," said a Shibo spokesman.

Under an agreement between Shibo and Oriental Broadway's U.S. investor, the Nederlander family, the theaters will stage more than 100 musicals, of which the latter owns the copyright, such as "Aida" and "The Lion King".

(Xinhua News Agency December 24, 2008)