Music and Dance is the best Performed

As early as the first century B.C., more than 80 different kinds of musical instruments were already in use. Among the historical finds of these instruments in Hubei in 1978 was a musical stand of 64 bronze bells. The bells have considerable variation in pitch, and they were made more than 2,400 years ago. They can produce a range of five octaves, and that itself is ample proof of the extraordinary knowledge of music in ancient China.

At present there are a great many song and dance troupes, opera companies, symphony orchestras, choirs and traditional instruments orchestras. The musicians are trained mainly in the eight conservatories of music, which have their own primary and secondary schools, in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenyang, Chengdu, Tianjing, Xi'an and Guangzhou. These institutions and their schools provide music education at different levels from the very basic to the advanced. This comprehensive system has been working well. When a graduate from the secondary music school enters a conservatory, he or she may choose courses offered by various departments such as composition, folk music, vocal music, orchestral music and the piano. The Central Conservatory of Music and Shanghai Conservatory of Music also have departments on conducting, musicology, and modern opera. Most of the young musicians who have achieved outstanding results in national and international competitions have been trained by these schools.