Choreographer of more than 130 dance dramas and dances, Chen and some 40 directors and choreographers from around the country started to design the gala performance last December.

Chen, through public bidding, became the chief director of the gala performance. He said the original proposal he submitted to the Organizing Committee had been modified since it was accepted, but "not very much different from my original design."

His creative design features a stage 38 meters high and 50 meters wide, which "is eye-catching," he said. The steel pipes to make up the stage, if jointed in line，run 240 kilometers in length.

The scene Chen is most proud of himself features "torrents of the Yellow River pouring down from the heaven", in which water flows down at 80 tons per minute into a pool of 5 meters deep.

For the 12,000 performers, most of them are students from universities and high schools in Beijing, a total of 15,000 costumes were designed and made, Chen said.

Chen disclosed that the total expenditure of the gala performance is 17 million Yuan (about US$2 million), about one twentieth of that for the opening ceremony of the Sydney Olympics.

(Xinhua News Agency 08/22/2001)