Following the speeches by local and regional officials praising the achievements made by Chengdu and China in protecting its intangible cultural heritage, the one-hour parade started with a performance of the Imposing Gong and Drum troupe from North China's Shanxi Province.

The deafening sound from gong and drum beating drew applause and yelling from excited spectators.

Hailed as the best in the country, the Imposing Gong and Drum from Shanxi has performed in many domestic and international events since the 1980s.

Singers and dancers from Romania, South Korea, Russia, Africa, Brazil and Mexico, followed, along with performances from the Tibetan and Qiang ethnic groups of China, acrobats from East China's Jiangsu Province, Shaolin Buddhist monks demonstrated martial arts, and Sichuan Opera performers breathing fire and dragon dance performers from Sichuan debuted in procession.

"Both their performances and traditional costumes were marvelous and wonderful to see," commented Ran. "I knew many sites on the World Heritage List, but I did not know what the intangible cultural heritage was. I learned a lot about it from the parade," Ran said.

Many spectators mistook all the performers for professionals because of their wonderful performances. But Qiang Ba, a middle-aged Tibetan who led a group of dancers from Qamdo, Tibet, said: "All the dancers are farmers at home and have rehearsed together for two months."

This morning's performances not only drew locals like Ran but also Tang Rongmei, a 67-year-old American professor teaching in the Guangya School in Chengdu and she brought 15 students with her.

Tang, an educator who graduated from Columbia University with several degrees in education and education-related fields, is teaching English to a group of rural women teachers from different parts of Sichuan.

Tang, who visited the Shaolin Temple in 1999 with some American high school students, liked the martial arts performed by the monks the most.

"To me, the Shaolin martial arts shows what life should be - energetic and concentrated," she said.

"None of my students knew about the opening ceremony or the parade before I told them the day before. But they were all were excited to see the performances and kept taking pictures," Tang explained. "One said that she had never seen anything so grand in her life."

The 19-day International Festival of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, approved by the State Council, sponsored by the Ministry of Culture and Sichuan Provincial Government, and organized by the Chengdu Municipal Government, the Sichuan Provincial Department of Culture and the China National Center of Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection, is aimed at furthering China's efforts in protecting its intangible cultural heritage and enhancing its global influence in the field, said Ding Wei, Assistant to the Minister of Culture.

The reason why Chengdu was chosen as the location for hosting the event is because of its status as one of China's historically and culturally famous cities and for its efforts to protect and develop cultural heritage, he said.

"Chengdu is the only Chinese city which has never changed its name or site for more than 2,000 years," Ding said. "This fact alone can justify the decision to choose Chengdu as the venue for the festival."