CHINA: The Great Hall of the People, the Soviet-style bastion of communism at the heart of the Chinese capital, will host its first pop concert next month, with three Taiwanese stars lined up to perform.
Sitting next to Tiananmen Square near the Forbidden City, the Great Hall is more usually the venue for China's annual parliament, the National People's Congress. But Xinhua news agency said it had received a special dispensation for the concert.
Taiwanese pop idols Richie Jen, Huang Pinyuan and Jeff Chang will launch the hall's pop music debut next month, followed by Hong Kong singer Sandy Lam. The only local entertainer will be singer-songwriter Xu Wei.
Staging a pop concert in the Great Hall of the People, where Mao Zedong rallied the communist faithful and hosted Richard Nixon, is the latest sign that things are changing in China.
This is the hall where former premier Li Peng held crisis talks with democracy activists shortly before troops moved in on Tiananmen Square in June 1989. And Deng Xiaoping launched his groundbreaking economic reforms in the hall, which was built by volunteer labour in record time in 1959.