A crop of 270 Kazakstan artists are giving ethnic style performances in Shanghai, a leading Chinese metropolitan, from April 26 through April 29.

With greetings of "Hello" in the Kazak language, 1,200 tent-like candy containers were distributed to Chinese audience watching one of the performances.

Titled "Almaty Cultural Week," the event will feature unique Kazakstan music, paintings, dances and movies. Folk artists from Kazakstan will also stage ethnic singing and dancing shows on Shanghai streets and squares.

As early as in September 2002, Almaty's mayor wrote to Chen Liangyu, then mayor of Shanghai to propose cultural exchanges between the two cities, suggesting an Almaty cultural week to be held in Shanghai first and then a Shanghai cultural week in Almaty, the former capital of Kazakstan. The country moved its capital to Astana in 1998.

Almaty, a major Kazakstan city where more than 140 ethnic groups live, is still the cultural center of the country. There is a monument in the city dedicated to Xian Xinghai, a famous Chinese musician who died in Almaty.

(Xinhua News Agency April 28, 2004)