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Financial Shot in Arm for Entertainment and Culture

China's entertainment and cultural scenes flourished throughout July with a wide range of foreign crowd-pullers ranging from movies to artworks being shown in Beijing, a summer phenomenon arguably caused by people's need for a cool venue for a few hours to escape the summer heat.

Star Wars Episode II - Attack of the Clones, like its predecessors a science fiction Hollywood movie, was a box office record-breaker. Screened in almost all of Beijing's cinemas, it brought in three daysÕ box-office takings of 2.5 million yuan, exceeding the revenues for Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings in their first-three-day showings in the city. Following the film success, a newly-published book series of Star Wars also quickly became a best-seller in the city, China Youth Daily reported.

An exhibition of works by one of the world's most famous surrealist artists, the late Salvador Dali, is also touring China's major cities, climaxing in Beijing. The traveling exhibition, with the title Salvador Dali: A Journey Into Fantasy, displays 370 works, long renowned for their dreamlike imagery. The exhibition has attracted thousands of visitors every day since opening in the capital on July 15.

In addition, many foreign youth symphony orchestras have also been appearing more frequently than usual.