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The first Guzheng Beijing International Music Festival opened at the National Indoor Stadium in Beijing on July 26. The festival, which will last for six days, features the Guzheng, or qin zither, a traditional Chinese instrument, and will be the first China has ever held featuring one national musical instrument. Musicians and music lovers from Japan, South Korea, the US, Canada, Hong Kong and Taiwan will perform at the festival.

The first program at the opening ceremony of the festival was an enormous guzheng performance group featuring 1,000 people, named “Praises of China, Love for Dunhuang.” Dressed in costumes printed with the Chinese characters “Dunhuang” and other relevant patterns, the 1,000 performers played the musical instruments together with performers of the "jinghu" (a small two-string bowed instrument), drums, martial arts, and singers and dancers to present the music of the Chinese nation. Dunhuang is a city in western China’s Gansu province. It was a major trading center on the silk road, and is famous for its Buddhist murals painted and stored in caves nearby.

Following the opening ceremony, there will be 11 national concerts, with eight using the titles “Night of Dunhuang” or “Sound of Dunhuang.”. The festival is expected to have about 10,000 attendees, making it the largest guzheng event ever. The Guzheng is nearly 3,000 years old, making it, as Wang Zhongshan, a renowned guzheng professor and performer from the China Conservatory, observed, one of the few musical instruments which are truly ancient. Since it is beautiful to look at, pleasant to listen to, and easy to learn, a growing number of people have begun to learn how to play it. Some young popular musicians have even added guzheng elements into their works, such as Jay Chou, who included it in his song, “Chrysanthemum Flower Bed.”.

The music festival will feature a wide variety of programs, such as “Zhongshan talks about the guzheng,” a conversation with famous guzheng performer Wang Zhongshan, guzheng concerts with multimedia and rock & roll performances, special performances by famous guzheng musicians from overseas, a Taiwanese concert with the theme of “Love across the Strait, Meeting in Beijing,” performances by local music schools, and a concert for young, national award-winning guzheng performers.