Cultural Heritage Day opens in Chengdu

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The second International Intangible Cultural Heritage festival opened in southwest China's Sichuan province on Monday. The festival marks a couple of firsts - the first large scale festival in Chengdu, the capital of the province after the Wenchuan Earthquake and the first one ever organized by UNESCO.

It was all singing and dancing on the main avenue of Chengdu. The festival mood seemed to sweep away any of the remaining gloom created by last year's quake.

Forty five groups from home and abroad took to the one-kilometer-long avenue, dancing along with thousands of spectators from the sidelines.

One troupe from Guangdong province featured two young performers -- who went through considerable training -- standing on top of an umbrella.

One third of the troupes are from abroad, making up one tenth of the three thousand performers at the festival. Their performances ranged from Scottish bagpipes, Columbian folk dances, Madagascar aboriginal dancing and many more. Africa sent five troupes to the festival and Israel sent the largest, consisting of fifty performers.

Over three hundred activities will make it a very busy thirteen-day festival.