A museum about music, its culture and development, the first of its kind in China, was opened to the public on Sunday in Harbin, capital of northeast China's Heilongjiang Province.

Miao Di, curator of the Heilongjiang Music Museum, said that the museum has a collection of 100 valuable musical instruments, 400 pictures about noted Chinese musicians and the manuscripts of famous Chinese composers such as Wang Luobin, Fu Gengchen and Zhang Peiji.

"The cultural materials on display at the museum are of high value for research into the history of Chinese music from ancient times to now," Miao said.

Heilongjiang, the cradle of ethnic music schools in northern China, is also an important gateway through which Western music was introduced to China in the late 19th century.

The privately run museum will also soon open "music classrooms" for children, Miao said, where music experts will conduct music appreciation talks and demonstrations for children.
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(Xinhua News Agency January 23, 2006)