You won't be surprised to hear that there're plenty of entertainment and cultural activities in and around Qingdao this week. And the port city's public square was a hive of activity on Monday, with music, dance and song to whet all appetites.

A Bangladeshi sailor's Chinese song proved to be one of the biggest hits of the day. His pronunciations were near perfect, yet he said he couldn't speak a word of Mandarin. 

"I don't know the meaning, I just remember the words, I think it's a love song, right?" Suman said. 

"You know the meaning? It means 'the moon represents my heart'," he added with a shy smile.

These performers, mostly sailors, arrived in Qingdao over the past few days. Crew members from Thailand, Vietnam and India were all keen to impress with music from their homelands.

Nitsh Sharma, Indian Navy band leader, said: "I hope your people will enjoy our band most, because I personally feel, by keeping China as a friend in our mind, we fight very hard so we can please your people, I believe they'll enjoy us most."

The host PLA Navy band was the busiest of the lot. Formed in 1986, it's the only professional ceremonial performance unit of the PLA Navy.

The thrilled audience consisted of mainly Qingdao residents, people from other parts of China as well as crew members of the visiting navies.

With most programs themed around the sea, the joint navy performance conveyed a powerful message of peace ahead of the multi-country fleet review on April 23.