There had been rumours of a possible China gig

Rumours of a China gig have circulated for months after frontman Sir Mick Jagger said last year that an Asian tour would not be complete without at least one night in China.

The arena concerts will take place in Shanghai on 1 April and China's capital city, Beijing, on 4 April, as part of the band's Licks world tour.

The Australian leg of the tour ends this week in Brisbane, after which the Stones will play six concerts in Japan.

From there the band will move on to Singapore, Hong Kong, China, India and then Thailand in April.

The European leg of the Licks tour starts in Munich, Germany on 4 June, with the last confirmed European date in Glasgow in September.

"The band is very happy to be playing China," said a Rolling Stones spokesman.

"There had been plans to perform there for a while but it has taken some time to confirm."

Spiritual pollution

The band will play the 7,000-seater Workers Gymnasium in Beijing, according to promoters in China.

A few hundred front-row seats will be available for 6,000 yuan (�475) with the rest priced at between 500 yuan (�41) and 3,000 yuan (�238).

The top ticket price is about the same as the average Chinese person's annual income.

When the Rolling Stones first rose to fame in the 1960s, China was on the verge of the radical 1966-76 Cultural Revolution, which reviled Western pop culture as spiritual pollution.