Peking Opera of China is a national treasure with a history of 200 years. In the 55th year of the reign of Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty, the four big Huiban Opera Troupes entered the capital and combined with Kunqu Opera, Yiyang Opera, Hanju Opera and Luantan in Beijing’s thearetical circle of the time. Through a period of more than half a century of combination and integration of various kinds of Opera there evolved the present Peking Opera, the biggest kind of Opera in China, whose richness of repertoire, great number of artists of performance and of audiences, and profound influence are incomparable in China.

The costumes in Peking Opera are graceful, magnificent, elegant and brilliant, most of which are made in handicraft embroidery. As the traditional Chinese pattern are adopted, the costumes are of a high aesthetic value.
The music of Peking Opera is that of the “plate and cavity style”. Its melody with harmonious rhythms is graceful and pleasing to the ears. The melody may be classified into two groups: “Xipi” and “erhong”, guiding pattern, original pattern, slow pattern, quick pattern, desultary pattern being their chief patterns. The performance is accompanied by a tune played on wind instruments, percussion instruments and stringed instruments, the chief musical instruments being jinghu (a two-stringed bowed instrument with a high register), Yueqin (a four-stringed plucked instrument with a full-moon-shaped sound box), Sanxian (a three-stringed plucked instrument), suona horn, flute drum, big-gong, cymbals, small-gong, etc.