Top Chinese leaders, including President Hu Jintao, joined an audience of nearly 1,000 in the Chinese capital on Friday evening to watch a Beijing Opera show marking the arrival of year 2006.

Other leaders present included Wu Bangguo, Jia Qinglin, Huang Ju, Wu Guanzheng, Li Changchun and Luo Gan, all members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), or the ruling party's top decision-making body.

The performance, titled "The splendor of China," was jointly sponsored by several central authorities departments, including the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee and the Ministry of Culture.

Source: Xinhua