Best bets

Date: July 13 - 8:30 pm

Venue: Mao Livehouse

Price: 120 yuan

Surfer Blood is an American indie rock band from West Palm Beach, Florida, United States, formerly signed to Warner Bros. Records. The band has four members: John Paul Pitts (lead vocals/guitar), Mike Mcleary (guitar/backing vocals), Lindsey Mills (bass guitar/backing vocals) and Tyler Schwarz (drums). Founding members John Paul Pitts and Tyler Schwarz started playing music together in Orlando, Florida. They met Thomas Fekete at an Ultra Music Festival after party in Miami and the group was formed with the immediate goal of releasing a record and touring nonstop.

Musical L'enfant et Les Sortileges

Date: July 15-16 - 7:30 pm

Venue: Beijing Century Theater

Price: 100-680 yuan

Under the direction of Gael Darchen, the Maitrise des Hauts de Seine vocal ensemble is both unique and multi-faceted: from lyrical solos to big oratorios, the Maitrise adapts with ease to any vocal format. The Maitrise officially became the "Paris Opera Children's Choir" in 1995 in recognition for its high artistic and performance standards. Originally created in 1985 near Paris by the Hauts de Seine local governement, the Maitrise has sung with a stellar cast of world-class artists from James Colon to Seiji Ozawa and Valerie Gergiez, Andre Engel to JeanLouis Martinoty and Patrice Chereau, Jose Van Damand Roberto Alagna, and Nathalie Dessay and Felicity Lott.

Yuxiandu Thousands of Years' Taste

Date: Daily

Venue: China Royal Cuisine Museum

Price: Free

China Royal Cuisine Museum, the first and only private museum for Chinese royal cuisine, is staging a drama showing a brief history of royal cuisine in China, as well as how professionals have managed to preserve and promote the cooking skills of royal cuisine. The drama, titled Yuxiandu Thousands of Years' Taste, is directed by Yu Min, a famous Chinese TV series director, and is staged every day by staff members of the museum. Visitors to the museum can watch it for free, while having dinner consisting royal cuisine dishes.

Legend of Chopin - Piano Recital by Li Yundi

Date: July 8 - 7:30 pm Venue: Shanghai Oriental Art Center

Price: 280-1,280 yuan Li Yundi was propelled onto the international stage when he won first prize at the XIV Chopin International Piano Competition at the age of 18, becoming the youngest and first Chinese winner in the history of the renowned competition. Since then, he has been regarded as a leading exponent of Chopin's music. Li is a household name and has a huge following in China. In 2013 and 2014, he embarked on a 35-city recital tour of the country each year, taking classical music to provincial capitals as well as second-and third-tier cities. In 2015, Li started a historic tour with Dutoit and NYO-USA from Carnegie Hall in New York, to Beijing, Shanghai, Suzhou, Xi'an, Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Hong Kong.

New Circus - Traces In Shanghai

Date: July 8-Aug 17 - 7:30 pm

Venue: Shanghai Children Art Theater

Price: 80-480 yuan

Traces is the story of seven people trapped in a make-shift shelter, waiting for an unknown catastrophe to happen outside. In these fraught moments, they decide to live to the fullest in what they believe could be their last moments, hoping to leave nothing unsaid or undone. Combining traditional acrobatic forms with street elements such as skateboarding and basketball, as well as theater and contemporary dance, this contemporary play surprises, awes and delights at every turn. Poetic and explosive, humorous and thoughtful, Les 7 Doigts de la Main is a Canadian contemporary circus founded in 2002 by seven former top members of Cirque du Soleil, who were looking for away to break the mold and offer a new type of circus performance.

The Deutsches Theater in Berlin Waiting for Godot

Date: July 8-9 - 7:30 pm

Venue: National Center for the Performing Arts

Price: 100-580 yuan

A spotlight flits across a light-colored width of material on Mark Lammert's set, which contracts as if to form the hub of the world, disappearing into the gorge of a funnel in which two men stand. Vladimir and Estragon stare out of the crater's hole as if they have just landed on a strange planet. In this restricted area and free zone of pure acting, only the imagination is real. Two have-nots who possess neither shoe nor hat, neither radish nor turnip. No props to hold on to. Pozzo and Lucky also climb out of this primal hole, equally bereft of all utensils: no rope, now hip, no suitcase, nothing at all.