Free Visit to Poly Grand Theatre

Duration: 1 day. Time: March. Per capita cost: 100 yuan. Companions: Spouse. Activities: Photography[...]

Duration: 1 day. Time: March. Per capita cost: 100 yuan. Companions: Spouse. Activities: Photography, humanities, independent travel. The author visited these places: Shanghai Poly Grand Theatre, Yuanxiang Lake, Shanghai Shikumen, Jing’an Temple. Published on March 19, 2021, at 15:02.

The Shanghai Poly Grand Theatre is located in the administrative and cultural center of Jiading New City, at No. 159 Baiyin Road, Jiading New City. It is one of the landmark cultural facilities in Shanghai. The natural scenery mainly composed of water and greenery slowly unfolds. The park on the southwest side, the Jiading Library on the south side, and the Yuanxiang Lake scenery on the southeast side come into view. The theatre is designed by Tadao Ando, the winner of the Pritzker Architecture Prize and a Japanese architectural master. After inspecting the physical building, Ando called it the ‘best manifestation of his works designed in China’. The second Sunday of each month is the public open day, and citizens can visit the interior of the theatre for free. Truly worthy of being a masterpiece of a master, the exterior of the theatre gives people a stunning and shocking feeling. The main body of the theatre is a square with a side length of 100 meters. The fair-faced concrete exterior wall is covered with a layer of transparent glass curtain wall. In this cube, five cylindrical pipe spaces penetrate each other, constructing a dynamic interior space. At the same time, on the facade, a unique shape is cut out, constituting its iconic form. The cylindrical space, as an important highlight of the building, presents a rich and changeable appearance like a kaleidoscope. During the day, it is like a jade stone filled with many secrets quietly placed by Yuanxiang Lake. At night, it becomes a delicate crystal box, floating on the vast water surface and having a quiet conversation with its own reflection. Unfortunately, there was no performance on the day we went, so we couldn’t see the beautiful scenery of the crystal box at night. The following picture is a network photo. The Poly Grand Theatre is just behind the Hyatt Hotel. The two buildings, one high and one low, often appear in photos at the same time. Looking at the grand theatre from a distance is quite interesting. The square building is like a ‘big cheese’, and the gaping holes make it look like a ‘big cheese that has been bitten several times’. The grand theatre is adjacent to Yuanxiang Lake. It has a waterscape lake, and the design is ingenious. It seems to blend with Yuanxiang Lake. Looking from a height, people walking by the waterscape lake seem to be walking in the lake. Perhaps this is a kind of dialogue with nature. Yuanxiang Lake takes its meaning from ‘The Story of the Lotus Lover’ by Zhou Dunyi of the Song Dynasty: ‘I alone love the lotus for emerging unsullied from the mud, being unstained by filthy water. It is straight inside and outside, without branches or tendrils. Its fragrance spreads far and remains pure. It stands gracefully and is planted uprightly. It can be admired from a distance but not be played with casually.’ Entering the grand theatre from all directions to explore, the lines and arcs intersect and overlap. It seems that even reinforced concrete can become soft. The total construction area of the theatre reaches 56,000 square meters, with a total investment of about 700 million yuan. It has a large theatre with 1,466 seats and a small theatre with 400 seats, as well as a roof theatre and China’s first waterscape theatre, two unconventional theatres. It can meet the performance needs of symphony concerts, large-scale song and dance dramas, drama and opera performances, comprehensive art performances and other types of programs. Its building acoustics effect reaches the top domestic level in terms of building acoustics and stage equipment function configuration. Once entering the large theatre of the Poly Grand Theatre, one can feel the solemnity and grandeur inside the theatre. This place is not only beautiful but also extremely professional. The wooden walls and advanced sound transmission system have created a world-class theatre.

For both performers and audiences who have traveled far, it is an exciting experience. The Poly Grand Theater also houses Shanghai’s only water-scene theater, which is the most unique among the theater’s four theaters. Cleverly designed as a semi-indoor space, it connects with the theater’s interior using the audience seating to create an artistic conception where the lake water and architecture blend together. This is truly a ‘water-scene theater’, combining architecture with natural elements such as water, wind, and light. There are viewing platforms in all directions, allowing audiences to see different landscapes from various angles, achieving a combination of architecture and environment. Simple cylindrical shapes form the entrance, rest hall, and traffic

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**Exploring the Poly Grand Theater and Yuanxiang Lake**

***Complexity and Ingenuity of Structure***

Once inside the Poly Grand Theater, you can feel the complexity and ingenuity of its structure. The square shell encloses five kaleidoscopic structures, with countless straight lines and arcs intertwined. When light passes through, geometric patterns appear three-dimensionally.

***Rest Hall and Theater Corridor***

The large glass wall of the rest hall overlooks the theater’s large pool patio. Walking through the patio theater corridor, there are two viewing platforms on both sides, offering views of the scenery of Yuanxiang Lake.

***Yuanxiang Lake and Its Surroundings***

Poly Grand Theater is located by Yuanxiang Lake, connected to a large park area around it. There is a small square and walking paths around for rest. Yuanxiang Lake is the core landscape of Jiading New City and the largest artificial lake in the west of Shanghai. Its land area is about 60.89 hectares, including 27.04 hectares of land and 33.85 hectares of water body.

The shape of the lake resembles the Chinese character for ‘sea’ in Shanghai, echoing the ‘up’ shape of the Shanghai Race Track in Jiading New City. Yuanxiang Lake is named after Zhou Dunyi’s ‘On the Love of the Lotus’ from the Song Dynasty, reflecting its artistic conception that matches the planning pattern of Jiading New City.

***Unique Architecture and Landscape***

The entire water surface of Yuanxiang Lake is divided into well-arranged large and small lake areas, with lakes connected and lakes within lakes. Around the lake, there are several buildings of strange shapes, half-collapsed, and it is unknown what kind of buildings they are. They are eye-catching and seem like the ruins after an earthquake.

This strange and unique house is closed, and it is unknown what it is. There are huge rocks by the lake, one white like an ice cream and another like a shoe. The stepped wooden piles are also a landscape overlooking the Poly Grand Theater and Poly Hotel.

***Street Performers and Cultural Attractions***

Street performers have become a part of the city’s scenery. They not only display their own literary and artistic talents and receive corresponding remuneration but also provide another way for citizens to appreciate artistic performances.

On the east side of Yuanxiang Lake, the moss on the lotus pond grassland is red and yellow, and it is particularly beautiful under the sunset, a good place for leisure and the glass landscape platform. Walking on the glass landscape platform, looking down from above, the lake water on both sides ripples.

The Poly Grand Theater by the lake, the first water-scene theater in China, has a ‘big footprint’ on the wall that is unforgettable. The three-color walkway winds forward to the water platform.

***Jiading Library and Cultural Center***

Jiading Library has been rated as the ‘Best Public Library in the World’ by an authoritative American magazine, thus earning the title of the most beautiful library. It is a web celebrity attraction, attracting many tourists to check in. The design is distinctive, the environment is beautiful, the layout is reasonable, the scenery is beautiful, and it is worth a visit.

In the afternoon, if there is no reservation, one cannot enter. So, only the exterior can be seen. Ma Qingyun, the dean of the School of Architecture at the University of Southern California and the designer of Jiading Library, said: ‘In a good public space, the beautiful feelings you pursue will be enhanced because of this space. This is the quality that a good public space should express.’

The new building of Jiading Cultural Center is located at No. 33 Taxiu Road on the west bank of Yuanxiang Lake. It is connected to Jiading Library in the same building. Similarly, reservations are required and we didn’t enter.

***Culinary Experience at Xiyunlou***

The original plan for lunch was Shaoxing cuisine, which is also unforgettable. Now you can taste the dishes described by Lu Xun! Authentic Shaoxing cuisine is found in Xiyunlou. We went to play at Yunxiang Lake and deliberately arranged lunch here. Perhaps because Xiyunlou is not very popular, Niangniang Cuisine is not open.

***Xiyunlou Haipai Leisure Commercial Street***

‘Xiyunlou Haipai Leisure Commercial Street’ is located at the intersection of Hongde Road and Yumin South Road in Jiading New Town. The total length from east to west is nearly 1.2 kilometers, with a total area of 100,000 square meters. Among them, the above-ground construction area is about 65,000 square meters. There are a total of 26 multi-story buildings with unique features or multiple relocated historical old buildings.

The overall style of the project combines Shikumen and Art Deco styles to reproduce the charm of ‘the foreign concessions in Shanghai in the 1920s and 1930s’. Among these relocated old buildings are the private residences of Du Yuesheng, Zhang Xiaolin, and Wan Molin.

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