Beijing

Pop punk

Canadian pop punk group Simple Plan will hold a Beijing concert. With its fourth and latest album, titled Get Your Heart On released last month, the group will present a night of their hits, such as Welcome to My Life, and new songs. Chinese fans have experienced twice before the group's punk anger, smooth melodies and stylish appearance. Modern Sky, the famous mainland indie label, is behind the concert.

9 pm, Aug 10. Third floor of Tango Club, 79 Hepingli Xijie, south gate of Ditan Park. 010-6428-2288

Popular musical

In 1998 the classic United States children's television program Sesame Street was first introduced to Shanghai audiences as a 130-episode series titled Zhima Jie. This summer the longest-running children's show in US history and an Emmy Awards winner, will be revived once more with Sesame Street Live: Elmo's Green Thumb, which will tour the country for six weeks.

The stage show combines puppetry, muppets, dancing and multimedia tools.

After Beijing, the show will visit another 12 cities including Shanghai and Shenzhen.

7:30 pm, Aug 12-14. Beijing Exhibition Hall Theater, 135 Xizhimenwai Dajie, Haidian district. 400-610-3721

Printmaking show

The second Academic Exhibition of Contemporary Chinese Printmaking Art will be held in Beijing.

On display will be more than 100 works by the most active printmakers in China. A memorial exhibition will also be held, paying tribute to Gu Yuan (1919-96), a renowned woodblock print artist whose works vividly portray the lives of Chinese people in the 1930s and 1940s.

10 am-5:30 pm, until Aug 19. Today Art Museum, 32 Baiziwanlu, Chaoyang district. 010-5876-0600

Water Cube art

The first Artistic Water Cube Cup international art exhibition is running at the National Aquatics Center gallery.

The annual event presents more than 40 award-winning ink paintings and oil works submitted by overseas Chinese, along with masterpieces by veteran artists such as Huang Yongyu and Fan Zeng. "The art contest and exhibition will be held every year to strengthen the links between overseas Chinese artists and their motherland, " says Zhao Zhixiong, a key organizer of the National Aquatics Center, which was built in 2007 with funding of about 940 million yuan ($146 million) from overseas Chinese for the Beijing Olympic Games.

9 am-5 pm, until Aug 16. 11 Tianchen Donglu, Chaoyang district. 010-8437-0112/0116

Shanghai

Live in HD series

The Metropolitan Opera will introduce its Live in HD series to Shanghai, with Mozart's The Magic Flute. The project comprises a series of live opera performances that will be transmitted in high-definition video via satellite from the Metropolitan Opera in New York City to select venues around the world. Audiences will watch the production on a big screen. The artistic director of Shanghai Grand Theater, Qian Shijin, promises it will be an astounding visual experience. Chinese soprano Huang Ying, who played a role in the production, will host the show.

7:30 pm, Aug 27; 2 pm, Aug 28. Shanghai Grand Theater, 300 Renmin Avenue. 021-6386-8686

Amazing Race

Eleven teams are in the fray to win a trip to Hoh Xil Natural Reserve on the Qinghai-Tibet plateau valued at 400,000 yuan ($62,105), in the reality show The Amazing Race: China Rush (Season Two), which is based on Disney ABC's Emmy Award-winning Amazing Race.

Half the contestants this time are from China. To counter any home advantage to the Chinese, as foreign contestants have to also deal with language barriers and cultural differences, the race organizers have chosen some remote locations that will be equally unfamiliar to both.

The 12-episode show will premiere at 8 pm on ICS on Aug 7 and its Chinese version will be aired on Dragon TV at 2:10 pm the same day.

Micro sculptures

Twelve micro-sculpture works by British artist Willard Wigan are being exhibited in Shanghai.

The smallest of his creations is just 0.008 mm. Wigan says it takes about eight weeks to finish one piece and sometimes he has to work with surgical knives. The detail of his works can only be viewed through magnifiers.

10 am-10 pm, Aug 2-31. 1F, IFC Mall, 8 Century Avenue, Pudong New Area. 021-50102719

Retrospective show

Huang Yao (1917-1987) was an acclaimed Chinese cartoon artist in the 1930s.

His works inspired Chinese in their fight against the Japanese during the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression. Later, he played an important role in the introduction of Chinese calligraphy and painting to Southeast Asia. More than 160 works by Huang will be displayed at Shanghai Art Museum.

A collection of his original drawings will then be handed over to the museum.

9 am-5 pm, Aug 14-24. Shanghai Art Museum, 325 Nanjing Xilu. 021-6327-2829

China Daily