Traditional Chinese opera and folk music, as well as Western classics, can now be heard in the Forbidden City's Changyin Pavilion for the first time in over a century.

It was the first show following the renovation of the former royal theater, which is the only three-story stage that remains from the reign of Emperor Qianlong (1711-99).

The show was a prelude to the second Taihe Forum on Protecting the World's Ancient Civilizations, a two-day discussion in Beijing's Forbidden City, or Palace Museum, about preserving ancient cultural relics.