On July 4, Chinese conductor Tan Lihua led the Beijing Symphony Orchestra to open the annual Gateway to Arts 2021 Summer Festival with a concert at the Forbidden City Concert Hall.

The event saw performance of both Western and Chinese classic music pieces, including The Blue Danube, by Austrian composer Johann Strauss II, theme from Pirates of the Caribbean by Klaus Badelt and Chinese music pieces including Nie Er's Dance of the Golden Snake arranged by Tang Jianping and Upon the Field of Hope composed by Shi Guangnan.

Before the concert, a children chorus from Beijing performed Chinese songs, including Sing A Song for the Party, outside the Forbidden City Concert Hall, which attracted many tourists.

Having established itself as one of Beijing's biggest arts festivals for children during the summer vacation since 1995, the annual Gateway to Arts 2021 Summer Festival takes place at the Forbidden City Concert Hall will run until Aug 31.

With 10 mini summer camps teaching children Western classical music, traditional Chinese operas and traditional Chinese musical instruments, as well as 69 live performances and 10 public lectures, the festival runs for 59 days during the summer vacation.

According to Xu Jian, general manager of the venue, tickets of the opening concert sold out within eight minutes, which shows the popularity of the annual event.

The festival also attracts lots of children with its mini summer camps centering on art education.

This year, the 10 summer camps will offer training on musical instruments including pipa and harp, as well as art forms, such as Peking Opera and chorus.

For the first time, Kunqu Opera, one of the oldest traditional Chinese operas with a history of over 600 years, guqin, a zither-like seven-stringed traditional Chinese instrument, and xun, a globular, flute-like traditional Chinese instrument, will be introduced at the camps.