Beijing Olympic Cultural Festival kicks off

Chinese President Hu Jintao and Greek President Karolos Papoulias on the night of June 23 watched a performance of the opening ceremony of the 6th "Beijing 2008" Olympic Cultural Festival which presented some 20 programs by 400 Chinese and Greek artists.

Among the 150 Greek artists, Ino Menegaki, a priestess at the 2008 Beijing Olympic flame-lighting ceremony in Athens, narrated the Invocation to God Apollo, while noted Chinese singer Song Zuying and dancer Huang Doudou gave their wonderful performances.

The holding of Olympic Cultural Festival has been a usual practice from Barcelona Olympic Games in 1992 and Beijing has held five such festivals since 2003.

The Beijing festival is accompanied by the holding of the Meet in Beijing 2008 series of cultural events that is aimed at showing the diversity of world's culture and arts.

The Greek president is here for a state visit to China that started on June 23.