Endless excitement at Gateway to Arts summer festival

The annual Gateway to Arts summer festival opened at the Forbidden City Concert Hall in Beijing on Friday.

Running through Aug 24, the festival spans 52 days, offering 45 exciting performances, 12 arts summer camps, and for the first time, a nine-part lecture series highlighting traditional Chinese music.

Conductor Tan Lihua and the Beijing Symphony Orchestra gave a performance at the opening concert, paying tribute to the 200th anniversary of Johann Strauss II with the composer's classics. Thirteen-year-old pianist Wang Ziyin performed Edvard Grieg's Piano Concerto in A Minor alongside the orchestra.

"Like all the young and grown-up art lovers, I eagerly look forward to this festival every year. It has become a heavyweight artistic brand in China, accompanying generations of audiences for over 30 years," said Tan, the co-founder of the festival, which was introduced in 1995 and aimed at offering art lovers, especially children, with a diverse array of art forms.

Besides a diversity of live performances, from classical music, ballet to traditional Chinese operas, the festival this year will also feature four summer camps, introducing intangible cultural heritage items to the youngsters.

In addition to Beijing, the festival also extends its reach to Tianjin and cities in Hebei province, including Tangshan, Baoding and Hengshui, promising a summer filled with artistic delights for audiences across the region.