BEIJING, July 30 (Xinhuanet) --The 12th China International Choral Festival opened Tuesday evening at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. Nearly 200 choral groups from forty three countries have convened for the opening concert.

A thirty-minute countdown to the start of the show. It's hustle and bustle backstage, with melodies overflowing from each nook and cranny of the two wings. Even the collossal space of the Great Hall of the People feels crammed, as thousands of singers from all corners of the world converge for one of the biggest choral festivals in the country.

Nigerian group "The Capital Voices of Abuja" catches my attention as they rehearse a revolutionary Chinese song.

And even if you can't smell "The Jasmine," you won't miss it when you hear the artists of iSING warm up with this popular Chinese folk song, shortly before taking to the stage to lead almost two hundred singers for the opening song.

This year, the biennial event has drawn nearly 10,000 participants from around the world for a series of competitions, concerts, conferences and workshops. Started 4 years ago by Chinese-American opera singer Tian Haojiang, iSING has selected 40 outstanding young singers from 8 countries for this year's festival. He hopes the group will cultivate young singers with more a comprehensive understanding of both eastern and western culture.

"I was performing in a small city in Italy ten years ago. There were other artists that came from eight different countries. And they started to ask us questions about China and I realized that most people knew very little about China. So that prompted me to bring these artists to China and introduce them to what Chinese language, food and culture are really like," Tian Haojiang said.

Indeed, the evening is nothing but fun and reverie. The critically acclaimed USC Thornton Chamber singers give their dream-like rendition of an original song from the movie "Charlie and the Chocolate factory." Last year, the group performed with Barry Manilow at the Christmas Tree lighting concert and on the "50 and Counting Tour" with the Rolling Stones. They are just but one of the A-list ensembles at this year's festival.