The Jinghu is popularly called as huqin. Its high pitch and vigorous tone is considered an ideal accompaniment to Beijing opera, in which the Jinghu performs the melodies. With the development of Pihuang Qiang, one of the four major tone systems of Chinese local operas, the Jinghu came to be standardized in about 1790 during the reign of Emperor Qianlong of the Qing dynasty.

The huqin series of instruments in common usage consist of the erhu, zhonghu and gaohu. The gaohu (highest-pitched of the series) and zhonghu (lowest-pitched huqin) are proportionately fewer in numbers in the Chinese orchestra. The erhu forms the bulk of this section and is divided into distinct sections, known as erhu I and erhu II. These two sub-sections play either similar or vastly different melodies simultaneously, which is akin to the first and second violins in a Western orchestra. Occasionally, the concertmaster will play the banhu but it may not always be the concertmaster - an example is the jinghu, for instance in Zhao Ji Ping's Festival Overture, if there is a solo part for it