The Fourth China International Piano Competition, China's top piano contest, has announced a prize of US$30,000 will be awarded to the winner of next year's competition.  

The competition, which will be held from Oct. 15 to 25 next year in Xiamen, southeast China's Fujian province, will be open to participants from around the world, aged from 17 to 32.  

The organizing committee will invite 13 musicians from China, Italy, the United States, Japan, Australia, Norway and Spain to form a jury chaired by Bao Huiqiao, vice Chairman of the China Musicians Association.  

Six potential candidates will be selected to participate in the final contest from Oct. 23 to 24 after the preliminaries. The second prize will be US$25,000 and the sixth prize will be US$5,000.

(Xinhua News Agency December 2, 2006)