About 40,000 music fans have converged in the desert of western China this weekend for a rare outdoor, Woodstock-style concert featuring Chinese rock and roll. The festival brings 18 bands together at the foot of Mount Helan in northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region.

The first day of the concert attracted over 40,000 rock fans, including 20,000 from Beijing and Xi'an. Chinese rock bands performed their classic hits, with an enthusiastic response from the crowd.

Eighteen bands, representing four generations of Chinese rock, will play for 15 hours. With six bands playing on each of the three nights, the festival showcase includes acts like Tang Dynasty, Black Panther, Cobra, and Compass. And Cui Jian, China's best known rocker, will be the main attraction at the desert festival.

The huge stage is surrounded by rows of trees to keep out sandstorms. After two years of preparations, concert organizers described the event as a retrospective of Chinese rock. They hope to raise interest in Chinese rock, which is struggling commercially because of CD piracy and lack of airtime on state-run media.

(CCTV.com August 9, 2004)