China's 'Music Valley' to settle in Beijing's Pinggu District

Statistics shows that one third of world's violins are made in Pinggu District, Beijing.

Currently, Pinggu District announced it would invest 15 billion yuan to build an international music park and establish China's "Music Valley."

In the future, Pinggu will have China's first music-focused industrial functional zone with a high starting point, a high level and intensive functions. It will contain eight functions, including researching and developing, production, trade, creation, performing, exhibition, tourism and services.

In the past 20 years, the violin industry in Pinggu has been enlarged, from workshops with several people to factories with hundreds, from low-end musical instruments to high-end musical instruments and from violin production to making all kinds of musical instruments.

Pinggu also fostered world-famous master violin makers such as Chang Zhongqiu.

Moreover, Pinggu's violins are selling well in more than 40 countries and regions. It produced approximately 300,000 violins with a total value of 350 million yuan in 2009.

By Ye Xin, People's Daily Online