Free Admission to Shanghai Poly Grand Theatre

Duration: 1 Day Time: March Cost per person: 100 Yuan With Whom: Spouses Activities: Photography, Cultural, Freestyle Travel The author visited these places: Shanghai Poly Grand Theatre, Yuanxiang Lake, Shanghai Shikumen, Jing’an Temple. Published on 2021-03-19 15:02. Shanghai Poly Grand Theatre, located at 159 Baiyin Road, Jiading New City Administrative and Cultural Center, is one of the iconic cultural facilities in the Shanghai area. The natural scenery, primarily water and greenery, unfolds gently, with the park on the southwest side, the Jiading Library on the south side, and the Yuanxiang Lake view on the southeast side all coming into view. The theatre was designed by the Pritzker Architecture Prize winner and Japanese architectural master Tadao Ando. After visiting the actual building, Ando referred to it as the ‘best representation of his works in China’. The second Sunday of every month is the public open day, when citizens can visit the interior of the theatre for free. Living up to the master’s work, the appearance of the theatre is stunning and shocking. The main body of the theatre is a square with a side length of 100 meters, and the fair-faced concrete exterior wall is wrapped with a transparent glass curtain wall. Within this cube, five cylindrical pipe spaces intersect each other, creating a dynamic indoor space. On the facade, unique shapes are cut out, forming its iconic form. The cylindrical space, as an important highlight of the building, presents a rich and varied appearance like a kaleidoscope. During the day, it looks like a jade filled with many secrets, quietly resting on the side of Yuanxiang Lake. At night, it becomes a delicate crystal box, floating on the vast water surface, quietly conversing with its own reflection. Unfortunately, the day we visited, there was no performance, so we missed the beautiful scenery of the crystal box under the night sky. The photo below is from the internet. The Poly Grand Theatre is located behind the Hyatt Hotel, and the two buildings, one high and one low, often appear together in photos. From a distance, the Grand Theatre looks quite interesting. The square building body resembles a ‘big cheese’, and the missing holes make it look like a ‘big cheese that has been bitten several times’. The Grand Theatre is adjacent to Yuanxiang Lake, and it has a water feature lake. The design is clever and seems to blend with Yuanxiang Lake. From a high vantage point, people walking by the water feature lake seem to be walking in the lake. This is probably a kind of dialogue with nature. Yuanxiang Lake is named after the ‘On the Love of the Lotus’ by Zhou Dunyi of the Song Dynasty: ‘I alone love the lotus that comes out of the mud unsoiled, washes in clear ripples without being coquettish, is hollow in the middle and straight on the outside, does not spread or branch, its fragrance is far and clear, it stands tall and clean, can be observed from afar but not to be played with rudely.’ Walking into the Grand Theatre from various directions to explore its secrets, the lines and arcs intersect and stack, seemingly making reinforced concrete soft. The total construction area of the theatre is 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 rooftop theatre and China’s first water feature theatre, two unconventional theatres, which can meet the performance needs of symphony concerts, large-scale song and dance dramas, dramatic performances, comprehensive artistic performances, and other types of programs. Its acoustic effect reaches the top level in domestic architectural acoustics and stage equipment function configuration.
Once entering the grand theater of Poly Grand Theatre, one can feel the solemnity and magnificence inside. This place is not only beautiful but also extremely professional. With wooden walls and an advanced sound transmission system, it creates a world-class theater. It is an exciting experience for both performing actors and audiences from afar. There is also the only waterscape theater in Shanghai in Poly Grand Theatre, which is the most special one among the four theaters. Here it is cleverly designed as a semi-indoor space. The auditorium connects the interior of the theater, creating an artistic conception where the lake water and architecture blend with each other. This is truly a “waterscape theater”. The architecture combines with natural elements such as water, wind, and light. There are viewing platforms in all directions, and audiences can see different landscapes from different angles, realizing the combination of architecture and the environment. And a series of simple cylinders form the public functional spaces such as entrances, lounges, and traffic flow lines. The simple external shape forms a sharp contrast with the rich internal space. When being in it, you can feel the complexity and ingenuity of its structure. Inside the square shell are five kaleidoscope structures. Countless straight lines and arcs are intertwined. When light passes through the middle, geometric pictures will be presented three-dimensionally. Lounge. The large glass wall of the lounge overlooks the large pool patio in the theater. Entering the patio. Theater corridor. Outside the grand theater corridor, there are two viewing platforms on both sides. The viewing platforms overlook the scenery of Yuanxiang Lake. Poly Grand Theatre is by Yuanxiang Lake and is connected to a large park in the surrounding area. There is a small square and a promenade around it for people to rest. Yuanxiang Lake is the core landscape of Jiading New City and the largest artificial lake in western Shanghai. Its land area is about 60.89 hectares, of which the land area is 27.04 hectares and the water area is 33.85 hectares. The shape of the lake is like the Chinese character “海” (sea) in Shanghai. It echoes the “上”-shaped Shanghai International Circuit in Jiading New City. Yuanxiang Lake takes its meaning from Zhou Dunyi’s “Ode to the Lotus” in the Song Dynasty: “I alone love the lotus for emerging unsullied from the silt, being washed and yet not seductive, having a straight stem inside and being unobstructed, without branches or tendrils, with a fragrance that spreads far and remains pure, standing gracefully and upright, worthy of being observed from afar but not to be played with casually.” Its artistic conception is in line with the planning pattern of Jiading New City: “A forest every kilometer, a lake every hundred meters, with lakes and rivers connected, and the fragrance of lotus filling the city.” The entire water surface of Yuanxiang Lake is divided into well-arranged large and small lake areas, with lakes connected to each other and lakes within lakes. Around the lake, there are several buildings of strange shapes scattered. They are half-built and it is unknown what kind of buildings they are. They attract people’s attention with their crooked appearances, as if they were ruins after an earthquake. This strange house is both strange and unique. The door is tightly closed and it is unknown what it is. The huge stones standing by the lake, one is as white as ice cream, and the other is like a shoe.

The stepped wooden stakes are also a landscape. Looking from afar, there are Poly Grand Theatre and Poly Hotel. Street performers have become a part of the urban landscape. Street performers not only can show their own artistic specialties and obtain corresponding remuneration, but also provide another way for citizens to enjoy art performances. In the grassland of the lotus pond on the east side of Yuanxiang Lake, moss grows with red and yellow intersecting. It is extremely beautiful under the setting sun. It is a good place for leisure with a glass viewing platform. Strolling on the glass viewing platform and looking down, the lake water on both sides is rippling. The Poly Grand Theatre by the lake is the first waterscape theater in China. The ‘big footprints’ on the wall are unforgettable. The three-color trail winds forward. The waterfront platform. Jiading Library was rated as ‘the world’s best public library’ by an authoritative American magazine and thus won the title of the most beautiful library. It is an internet-famous scenic spot, attracting many tourists to check in. It has unique design, beautiful environment, reasonable layout and beautiful scenery. It is worth a visit. In the afternoon, if you don’t make an appointment, you can’t go in and just look at the exterior. 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 strengthened 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, an appointment is required and we didn’t go in. The original plan for lunch was Shaoxing cuisine, which is also unforgettable. You can taste the dishes described by Lu Xun! Authentic Shaoxing cuisine. We came to Xiyunlou. To visit Yuanxiang Lake, we deliberately arranged lunch here. Perhaps because Xiyunlou is not very popular, Niangniang Cuisine is not open. ‘Xiyunlou Sea-style Leisure Commercial Street’ is located at the intersection of Hongde Road and Yumin South Road in Jiading New City. 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 building area is about 65,000 square meters. There are 26 multi-storey buildings with unique characteristics or many relocated historical old buildings. The overall style of the project combines the 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 Mulin. Here, there is a small river meandering through the entire block, called ‘Xiyun River’. This river actually becomes the inner river and central axis of the block, hence the name Xiyunlou. Xiyunlou is a ‘carpenter’s square’-shaped commercial pedestrian street stretching more than one kilometer along the river and the street. It starts from the intersection of Aksu Road and Hongde Road in the west, crosses Yumin South Road to the planned road in the east, and turns south along Yumin South Road and extends to Qingxi Pool. There are a total of five small bridges on the river, ranging from traditional Chinese stone slab bridges to extremely modern steel arch bridges, each with its own attractions.
The riverside is dotted with hydrophilic platforms, revetments and leisure docks everywhere. The inheritance of Shanghai-style culture in old houses includes Du Residence, Zhang Residence, fish market, rice market and silk weaving guild hall. The 6,500 old houses gather to form the Xiangyun Square of Sea Residence. This white marble Xiangyun wall here has a history of 600 years. It is 1.2 meters long and 0.8 meters high. It was built during the Yongli period of the Ming Dynasty and is a precious cultural relic left by Jing’an Temple. It was moved here in 2017. Ants think this overall relocation method for protecting cultural relics is very good. Now with this technology, if it is really necessary to move cultural relics, they can be relocated. By the way, they can also be renovated and strengthened. At least our descendants can see the original appearance! Due to the lack of popularity, many places are not open. We walked a little. Transportation to Poly Grand Theatre: Get off at Jiading New Town Station on Metro Line 11 and then transfer to Bus Jiading Line 15 (transfer at Wanda entrance) and get off at the entrance of Jiading Library.

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