National Center for the Performing Arts
National Centre for the Performing Arts is located in the heart of Beijing, neighboring the Great Hall of the People and Tian'anmen Square and covering 118.9 million square meters, and its total construction area is 217.5 million square meters, including nearly 46.6 million square meters underground garage.
The main construction is the unique shell shape with 46.68 meters high and the only one of its shape in Asia. The exterior of the theater is a titanium accented glass dome that is completely surrounded by a man-made lake, it consists of 18398 pieces of titanium plates and 1226 pieces of super white glass. It looks like an egg floating on water from the air. It was designed as an iconic feature, something that would be immediately recognizable, like the Sydney Opera House.
Walk by the 80-meter long under-water gallery and enter the public hall from the Olive Hall, and you will see 3 professional theatres, the middle one is the Opera Hall, eastern one is the Music Hall and western one is the Theatre Hall. The three are separated but linked by air corridor. The Opera Hall is used for performing national and international operas like Yehudi Menuhin, Zubin Mehta and Pandit Ravi Shankar with 2398 seats; Music Hall is used in playing some symphony and national music with 2019 seats and the Theatre Hall is used for playing drama and other plays.
Inner of the centre, besides the three halls and a small practicing theatre, there are long gallery of under-water, exhibition hall, Olive Hall, library resource centre, news published hall, activity area of rooftop, souvenirs store and coffee house.
As a multi-function centre it also holds powder room, practicing room, conductor rest room, actor rest room, actor waiting room, dressing room, property room, VIP room and ritual girls’ hall in the centre.
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