HARBIN, Jan. 22 (Xinhuanet) -- A museum about music culture and its development, the first of its kind in China, was opened to the public on Sunday in this 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 abundant manuscripts of a dozen 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 the research into the history of Chinese music from the ancient time to modern time," Miao said.

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

    Harbin, known as "City of Music" in China, has become a center in northern China featuring a combination of Chinese and Western music. The summer concert season the city initiated in the 1930s has become a celebration for people loving music at home and abroad.

    The non-state museum will open some "music classrooms" for children, said the curator. Enditem