China's Great Hall of the People, the nation's most recognized political building, will soon host pop concerts, state media said Monday.
The cavernous halls of the sprawling, monumental Great Hall of the People in central Beijing will soon fill with the sounds of electric guitars and drums and the crooning of singers from Taiwan and Hong Kong, Xinhua news agency said.
Constructed after the start of Communist-ruled China in 1949, the government building is best known for hosting the annual legislative session, the National People's Congress, and visits by foreign leaders.
The venue sits on the edge of Tiananmen Square, the scene of the government's bloody massacre of pro-democracy demonstrators in June 1989.
But like many structures previously inaccessible to the Chinese public, the Great Hall also needs to make money and in recent years has rented out space for performances.
But those were mostly high-brow performances or well-known foreign musicals such as Cats, Chicago and Casablanca, which all played there last year.
Beginning in August, the Great Hall will stage pop concerts, Xinhua said.
Five artists are set to rock China's premier political venue, including Taiwan singers Richie Jen and Huang Pinyuan, who will launch the Great Hall's pop music debut on August 11, followed by Taiwan's Jeff Chang on August 13, and Hong Kong singer Sandy Lam Yiklin on the 15th.
Local singer and song writer Xu Wei will perform there on the 17th.
"It has always been a dream of mine to visit the Great Hall of the People. I would never have expected that I would be holding a concert here," Chang was quoted as saying.
The hall has a maximum seating capacity of 6,000.
