Songs taking the longest and shortest time to compose

Among all of Qiao's creations, the song "Unforgettable Tonight" took the shortest time to write, only two hours.

The story goes like this: During the rehearsal of the 1984 Spring Festival Gala, the chief director Huang Yihe, in need of a song to go with the whole program, entered Qiao's office in a hurry and asked him to write such a song on the spot.

Though having no idea what to write about, Qiao still told Huang to come get the song at five o'clock in the morning. However, Qiao did not get started until three o'clock in the morning.

Beginning with the sentence "Unforgettable tonight, unforgettable tonight, be it the end of the skyline or the corners of the sea," Qiao finished the song "Unforgettable Tonight" - which has been passed down for two decades -- within two hours.

By comparison, the song "Missing" took the longest time to finish, about 26 years from getting the initial inspiration to putting on the last finishing touches.

One day in the summer of 1963, when Qiao returned home from his working place, as he entered the bedroom and opened the window, a butterfly briskly swam in with the cool air.

Stunned, Qiao dared not move or tidy up the room, lest he disturb the little fairy. Staring at it until it disappeared in the beautiful field in the distance, he felt shocked by a flow of various emotions. However, he did not immediately write a song about the experience, instead electing to retain the feeling in his heart.

It was 26 years later when he revisited the experience. In 1988, he cooperated with Gu Jianfen to forge the song "Missing," which was later sung by Mao Amin at the CCTV's Spring Festival Gala.