The Kong Xiangdong Music Arts Center today announced that China's first children's piano competition concluded recently in Chengdu in southwest Sichuan Province, and six children received awards.

Officials with the music center said the contest was held to raise the artistic level of piano students in southwest China. The center looks for gifted children in the area, and will sponsor the most outstanding ones to participate at international contests in the future.

The officials also said the center plans to open a Chengdu branch school soon.

Kong, for whom the center is named, usually lives in the United States, and became the youngest prize winner at both the Moscow 1986 Tchaikovsky International Competition and Spain's 1987 Santander International Competition.

Now a well-known 33-year-old pianist, Kong has taken part in several concerts popularizing Chinese culture.