Bringing the belief in harmony demonstrated in Chinese New Year culture, over 500 Beijing
performers will dance in Hollywood on Saturday in a giant goodwill
parade, organizers said on Wednesday.
The parade, which starts at the historic Grauman's Chinese
Theater and will proceed down Hollywood Boulevard for about two
hours, will culminate in giant dragon balloons with the symbolic
five colors of the Olympic rings and a Peace Dove balloon.
The cultural extravaganza, jointly sponsored by Beijing and Los
Angeles municipal governments, will be a colorful display of
floats, dancers and traditional Chinese events, officials told a
press conference.
Its Grand Balloon Show Finale will include five dragons weaved
by thousands of balloons and more than 40 handlers, reflecting the
Olympic spirit between Beijing, the Olympic host city in 2008, and
Los Angeles, which has hosted two separate Olympic Games.
Besides the 500 performers aged from seven to 70 from Beijing,
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and some 200 schoolchildren
from five local primary schools will also participate in the
parade, an official of the mayor's office said.
Los Angeles is the only US city where the parade will take
place, after the performers from Beijing staged similar annual
parades in Paris, London and Sydney over the past three years,
according to Li Jicheng, the parade's coordinator from Beijing.
The Hollywood Boulevard parade "is being presented to Los
Angeles to announce 'Beijing Welcomes You' and to encourage
visitors to attend the 2008 Olympics," said Yu Debin, deputy
director of the Beijing Tourism Administration.
He added that the event would also give performers from China
the opportunity to share their traditional folk culture with the
American public.
(Xinhua News Agency March 1, 2007)
