The East China province is to undertake the two-week long festival from September 28 to October 13 in Nanjing, its capital, and four other cities, Suzhou, Wuxi, Changzhou, and Yangzhou.

Jiangsu Province has been working hard to prepare for the arts gala since it was chosen as the venue in 1997. In October 1998, the provincial government set up a preparation committee led by main provincial government leaders. The five host cities also set up preparation committees.

The central committee of the Communist Party of China has also offered its support along with the State Council and the Ministry of Culture, which is the festival's sponsor.

Vice-Premier Li Lanqing, who is also chairman of the organizing committee of the festival, has been instructing people how to make the event a good one.

More than 100 performers from across the country will take part in the festival.

There will be operas, modern dramas, puppet plays, acrobatics, and leather-silhouettes, where a leather figure is controlled like a puppet with its shadow appearing on a screen.

Among the performers, eight are from the China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Taiwan and other countries. They will be on stage in 15 theatres in Nanjing, four in Suzhou, four in Wuxi, four in Changzhou and four in Yangzhou.

The festival also has eight exhibitions including the Suzhou Silk and Tourism Festival and the Wuxi Taihu Lake Tourism Festival. The First China Art Festival was held in Beijing in 1987. Since then, four others have been held, in Beijing, Kunming, Lanzhou and Chengdu.

(China Daily)