The judgment in the appeal reaffirmed the first sentence issued by the Beijing Dongcheng District People's Court in September last year.

The culture company signed an agreement with the Palace Museum on June 13, 2001, 10 days before the concert. The agreement said the company should pay fee of 2 million yuan (US$242,000) to the museum in two installments for occupying Wumen Square in the Forbidden City, according to the court's written ruling issued yesterday.

However, the company had only paid the museum 1 million yuan (US$121,000) as of this month.

Yang Wenjun, the company's lawyer and the defendant in the first instance of the case, said: "It (the reason the company did not pay the rest of the money) is because an unfair agreement was signed, taking advantage of my company's precarious position."

He said the company felt obliged to comply with the museum's requirements because the museum would not let the 1,000 workers and 200 trucks being used by the company to enter the concert site unless the company signed the agreement.

Yang claimed the concert was part of the activities involved in Beijing's bid for the 2008 Olympic Games and said it was against the public interest to take his company to court.

In the appeal, the Beijing No.2 Intermediate People's Court reaffirmed the decision of the Dongcheng District People's Court that the company did not provide sufficient proof of Yang's claim that the agreement had been signed under duress.

Both parties of a contract should fulfill their commitments, said Zhang Lei, the judge. The culture company could not refuse to pay the rental fee just because it considered that fee to be too high, added Zhang.

The judgment in the appeal was made according to the Civil Procedure Law of China, Zhang explained.

Huang Zhejing, the Palace Museum's representative, said: "I am satisfied with the final judgment."

(China Daily February 27, 2003)