Key points for Conservation International China Program’s 2007 Summer Music Hall Event.

For Our Natural Splendor, Gateway to Music is a series of 60 events hosted by Forbidden City Concert Hall, every summer for the past 12 years in Beijing.

The music events provides a diverse forms of music, dance, opera and targets mostly to children, to give them their first exposure to music instruments, interacting with performers and learn to play a little themselves. Each concert hosts about 1,400 people.

This year’s event was enriched with Conservation International’s participation, by adding environment and green living as a main theme to this widely applauded classical.

The music series will be carbon neutral one, making it the first in China by incorporating climate change mitigation and public awareness in a large event. 60 events electricity, car transportation of audiences as well as performing group travel from overseas, come together to 126 tons of carbon dioxide, which is to be offset through planting trees in the Mountains of SW China. CI has helped evaluating energy consumption in the music hall, and has connected its long-term collaborator 3M Company, which offered to put on a UV screen on the south-facing glass wall of the music hall to help reduce using of air conditioning.

An exhibition with carbon calculator, a man-size Ms. carbon neutral mascot (pika), will be shown daily in the Music Hall entrance, to interact with the audience, esp. young audience, for climate change and green living education.

A Nature Sound Cinema, and nature image exhibition, provided by National Geographic Society, will be shown daily during the music series, in the downstairs surround sound cinema. Over 100 images from NGS will decorate the hallway and cinema into a beautiful natural landscape. The audience can get free admission to the cinema, before each show starts. August 5th marks the Night of Nature Sound presentation by NGS and NPR staffer involved in making the Radio Expedition shows.

Dr. George Schaller, the most famous wildlife biologist and conservationist, has written a series of eco-stories on pika – a tailess mouse-like rabbit living on high Tibetan plateau. Dr. Schaller used his years of wildlife research stories to illustrate how the cute animal interacts with its many many neighbors co-existing on the beautiful yet fragile highland. The stories are re-edited into a children’s percussion show featured by Leon Percussion Group, and will be narrated by a famous children’s show host, on the night of August 23.

Media on both entertainment side and environment side are all very excited with the news. Radio stations have scheduled series of programs reporting at different stages of the show. Dr. Lu Zhi, director of CI China, said: collaborating with a music event is one of the steps to bring environment issues and awareness closer to the urban center’s lifestyle. We hope the beauty of nature sound and being part of the climate change solution will inspire people to look more into a nature-friendly lifestyle.