With New Year's Day just around the corner,
Beijing is caught up in the holiday hype: theatres are decked out in festive colours, concert halls resonate with busy rehearsals, and restaurants are sizzling with bountiful delicious dishes to fit the season.
More than 100 shows, ranging from symphonies, choirs, ballets and Latin dance to Peking Opera, will crowd the stages of Beijing, said Liu Lu, an official of the
Beijing Cultural Bureau Thursday.
Although there have been over 1,000 performances in
Beijing this year, there is no ebb in audience's enthusiasm.
"For those preferring indoor activities in this cold season, what could be better than enjoying an exciting performance? Especially if the performance affords aesthetic enjoyment as well as a strong draught of festiveness,'' Liu said.
The most popular performance this year might be the annual New Year Symphony Concert of Beijing. After five successful years, the show has become a regular musical fixture for
Beijing holidayers. Almost all tickets for the show have been sold.
The concert for this year will be presented by a grand team of 150 musicians from both China and Germany. But who will play and what will be played are often not the uppermost questions in ticket-buyers' minds.
"Most of them seem to be concerned only about whether they can get a ticket or not,"said Liu. "We take this as a compliment. We are glad to see that our past record is good enough to free the audience from worries about performance quality."
But the most unusual performance will come next Monday, when at a grand ceremony the bell and drums at the ancient Bell Tower and Drum Towers in central
Beijing will sound again. And from that day on, the bell and drums will sound every morning and evening, just as they used to about a hundred years ago.
But they will no longer serve their old function of marking the time of day. Instead, they will serve as a reminder of the continuity of tradition in this ancient capital of China. The bell and drums can also serve people who wish to pray for someone dear to them, said an anonymous official with the Dongcheng District Cultural Relics Management Committee.
While the performances are a hot item and the tickets are expensive, stores in
Beijing embrace the golden season with various promotions and different discounts.
"Shopping will be a great pleasure at this time, for people can get lots of things at lower prices,'' said Yang Xinjing, an official with the local commercial authority.
And many major restaurants such as Quanjude and Nengrenju, which are famous for roast duck and lamb hot pot respectively, report satisfactory booking rates and expect full tables. Things are also good for the New Year banquets of star-class hotels.
Since many people will be going home later during the New Year's holiday, the
Beijing Municipal Public Transportation Company has decided to extend service to midnight for the three days.
And for those who would like enjoy winter scenery in suburban Beijing, there will be extra buses from various downtown locations to favourite scenic resorts.(China Daily)
