Welcome to the October 19, 2009 edition of China Carnival. Although we have only two posts today, they are both about Beijing: Zhu shared some of her pictures about “Old Beijing”; lovelyn told a story about her husband’s “Monkey: A Modern Beijing Opera”. Please enjoy!

Chinese opera is known as one of three ancient theatres in the world. The other two are ancient Greek tragicomedy, and Indian Sanskrit play. Chinese opera has a long history that dates back to as early as the third century. During thousands of years of development, it has now become a rich system of drama and musical theatre with more than 360 regional branches.

Today, I will introduce you the top 5 most popular regional branches of Chinese opera.