With an approval of State Council of the P.R. China, China Shanghai International Arts Festival is the state-level International Arts Festival, hosted by the Ministry of Culture and organized by Shanghai Municipal People's Government. Since 1999, it has been proudly held in Shanghai from Oct.18th to Nov.18th.

The objective of China Shanghai International Arts Festival is to present the best in world culture, promote Chinese ethical arts, enhance Sino-Foreign cultural exchange and improve the cultural market. The festival is composed of Performing Programs, Public Activities, Performing Arts Fair, Academic Study and Forums, etc. Since 1999, China Shanghai International Arts Festival has successfully been held six years in a row. For over six years, we have received performing artistic troops from fifty different foreign countries in five continents

and Chinese regions. We have presented 346 performances from all over the world. There have been 163 foreign performances and 183 domestic performances. Over 18,000 artists and two million spectators from across the world have attended the festivals.

China Shanghai International Arts Festival commits itself to encouraging innovation and introducing the classics. This is what has given our festival such a strong reputation both at home and abroad. We have invited world famous ballet companies, orchestras and artistic masters to our festival. We have seen performances such as the ballets "Swan Lake" performed by the Russian Kirov Ballet, "Ballet for Life" performed by the Bejart ballet of Lausanne, "Romeo and Juliet" performed by the German Oper am Rhein and "Salome" by the Sydney Dance company, and "River Dance" the Irish Traditional Dance. We have witnessed concerts by the British Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, National Orchestra of France. We have enjoyed the work of the world-renowned Flutist James Galway, the tenor Andrea Brocelli and the cellist Yo-Yo Ma. Moreover we have seen innovative song and dance through the Tango Musical "Tanguera" by dancers from Argentina, the French multimedia Opera "Les Paladins", the Chinese dancing opera "Wild Zebra", "Dreams in the Red Mansion", "Chinese Imperial Concubine". All of these performances have introduced the spirit of innovation into the festival and enabled the audience to experience the versatility of arts.

In order to raise the awareness and advance the international status of our festival around the world, we proposed having a Guest Nation for each festival who would co-organize the Culture Week of the festival. Since the fourth China Shanghai International Arts Festival, we have successfully organized "Austrian Culture Week", "Russian Culture Week" and "French Culture in Shanghai" in the past few years. Since the Third China Shanghai International Arts Festival, we hold annually "Shanghai Asia Music Festival" and biannually "Shanghai International Magic Festival International ¨CMagic Competition" and "China Shanghai International Youth Piano Competition" and so forth. Our festival is not only a grand event for artists but also a festival for ordinary people. Public Culture Activities facilitate our festival to expend the indoor stages and theatres to outdoor squares, parks, streets, communities, schools and enterprises, and provide our people with venues to display their talents. The "caravan parade" in the first festival to "outdoor celebration", from domestic and foreign artists into the community to "Daily performances" by celebrities and ordinary people, from residence performing competition to "Chang Jiang Delta Region" folk song competition. No wonder it can be an attractive scene during the festival with the wide participation of the people.

The Performing Arts Fair is increasingly prosperous. We have more than four hundred and thirty domestic and foreign performing agents and artistic organizations from over fifty countries participate in our performing arts fair, in addition, five hundred and thirty nine letters of intent and memorandums have been signed in the past few years. Exhibitions and fairs of various sorts enrich in our festival and people are provided opportunity access to sixty exhibitions and fairs from home and abroad, including "National Treasures from Egypt" and "French Impressionist Paintings". It has been reported that it reached an audience of more than two million. Our festival has already been maintaining contacts with over thirty world-famous festivals, over one hundred artistic agents and organization and more than fifty famous renowned performing troops. Furthermore, for the first time we organized the "Delta Region Cultural Forum", initiated and organized the Asian-Pacific Festival Confederation Conference. Moreover, we are honoured to have the seventh annual ministerial meeting on international cultural policy forum proudly unveiled during the opening of our festival. Consequently, we have been broadened our connotations as well as extension of the festival and amplify our festival's influence.

After six years of practice, China Shanghai International Arts Festival undoubtedly will become a grand gathering for foreign and domestic art exchanges, a carnival for people, a vehicle for artistic innovation, a bridge for cultural exchange, a stage for training talents, the significant window through which we demonstrate the brand new image followed by openness reform. China Shanghai International Arts Festival makes a positive contribution to push forward socialist ethical progress, to promote metropolitan cultural status, and to accomplish the objective to establish Shanghai as an International Cultural Exchanges centre.