Lang Lang, United Nations Messenger of Peace and pianist, greets children during a recent visit to Fuli Taoyuan Kindergarten on the fringe of Beijing in May 2014. Dring the visit to the public kindergarten, Lang Lang had the opportunity to understand why investing in the first few years of a child’s life is important. ©UNICEF/China/2015/Xia Yong

At a music class, Lang Lang plays piano duets with 6-year-old Qin Haixuan, who is nicknamed ‘Lang Lang junior’ for his piano skills, at the kindergarten, and encourages the boy to keep up the good work. ©UNICEF/China/2015/Xia Yong

Lang Lang joins the children at their art class. “I’m so excited. When I was a boy, I attended kindergarten very briefly, because I spent most of the time on piano practise at home,” he said. ©UNICEF/China/2015/Xia Yong

Lang Lang and children jointly make a doll with recycled materials including straws, PVC pipes and bottle caps. The young pianist said if he were to relive his childhood, he wished to spend more time at an interesting kindergarten like this one. ©UNICEF/China/2015/Xia Yong

The kindergarten was established five years ago, after the Government of China’s landmark decision on investing in the first few years of all children’s lives, targeting universal enrolment of children aged 3 to 6 years into early childhood centres by 2020. It features art education to cultivate children’s imagination and independent thinking. ©UNICEF/China/2015/Xia Yong

“I believe pre-school classes and kindergarten are very important. Age 0 to 6 is the period when children’s worldview takes shape. They start to learn things and they learn very fast during this period of time,” said Lang Lang, highlighting the importance of early childhood development. ©UNICEF/China/2015/Xia Yong

Early childhood development is about the ‘whole child’ – the physical, social, emotional, cognitive thinking and language progression of each young individual. Global evidence demonstrates that quality activity for children aged 3 to 6 years influences how they become intellectually curious, socially confident and equipped with a solid foundation for navigating their lives. ©UNICEF/China/2015/Xia Yong

As an advocate for children’s education, Lang Lang voiced a hope for universal access to ECD services, noting the difficulties of bringing the services to the hard-to-reach regions. ©UNICEF/China/2015/Xia Yong

To promote the message that quality ECD services must be made available to all children, Lang Lang took part in the shooting of a UNICEF-Sesame Workshop public service announcement with Cookie Monster and two children at the kindergarten. ©UNICEF/China/2015/Xia Yong

“A great beginning can make every little kid’s life brighter and better,” Lang Lang says in the PSA. ©UNICEF/China/2015/Xia Yong