Zhejiang Daily: The Seventh China Arts Festival opens in Hangzhou
Updated: 2004-09-12

The Seventh China Arts Festival opened in the Gymnasium of Huanglong Sports Center in Hangzhou tonight. Hu Jintao, President of China, sent a congratulatory letter to the Seventh China Arts Festival and Liu Yunshan, a member of the Political Bureau of CPC Central Committee, was present at the opening ceremony and read out Hu's congratulatory letter. Li Tieying, the vice-chairman of NPC Standing Committee, was also present at the opening ceremony.

Zhou Heping, vice cultural minister and vice director of the organizing committee of the Seventh China Arts Festival, presided the opening ceremony. Chen Xiaoguang, vice cultural minister and director of the organizing committee of the Seventh China Arts Festival, and Lu Zushan, vice chairman of the Seventh China Arts Festival and governor of Zhejiang Province, made a speech at the opening ceremony respectively.

As Chen Xiaoguang said in his address to the festival, "The purpose of the China Arts Festival is to exhibit the abundant fruits of cultural and art creation of the country and the brand-new achievements made in our cultural cause in recent years. In a sense, the China Arts Festival is a feast of arts and a festival for the people."

A large-scale evening show, Sunlight in Paradise, was presented after the opening ceremony.