A sports fest is going on in Beijing, but visitors also have many opportunities to get a taste of Chinese culture.

Thirty small cabins have been set up at the Olympic Green in northern Beijing to showcase the intangible cultural heritage of different parts of the country.

The show at the Olympic park has received about 50,000 visitors over the past few days, the Beijing News reported.

The show is open to athletes, officials and journalists attending the Games.

"Spectators can visit for free with venue tickets on the day of the event," Kan Ke, deputy director of the Games' cultural activities department, said.

Also, about 10,000 free tickets are distributed every day to Beijing residents.

The most popular cabin, that of Beijing, featuring imperial settings of the Qing Dynasty palace and folk handiwork, attracted nearly 20,000 visitors on Thursday, several thousand more than the previous day.

About 12,000 visitors visited the Shanghai cabin on Thursday, an official in charge of that exhibition told the Beijing News.

"It has almost reached the maximum number of visitors we can host," he said.

The Shanghai show surprised visitors by mainly displaying ethnic musical instruments, instead of its modern face.

The goal is to give visitors at least one lasting memory of each region, organizers said. The cabin show is called "China Story".

"Cabins of every province and region are crowded," said the man from the Shanghai cabin. "This exhibition of China's intangible heritage is quite a cultural feast for visitors from all around the world."

The cabins are draped in white cloth, with peaked blue and yellow roofs that signify "the auspicious cloud", so all the cabins are called Xiang Yun (auspicious clouds) cabins.

The exhibitions at the cabins are not meant to be totally representative of Chinese culture, but the small-scale show is selective and excellent, organizers said

As well as the cabins, there is an afternoon parade with aerobics and hip-hop dance performances, and an evening show that includes singing and dancing.

"We have been practicing for a month under intense heat, wearing heavy clothing," Xiao Li, a performer in the parade show, said.

"But when I saw the enthusiastic crowd following us, I knew it was totally worthwhile."

Xinhua