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  The new National Grand Theatre of China in Beijing
 
2008-01-15

After seven tumultuous years of construction, work on the National Grand Theatre of China here in Beijing has finally finished, and it has opened to the public recently. The building is gigantic, holding an opera house and concert hall inside the gigantic 150,000m2 structure.

The building is surrounded by a lake/moat, and the entrances go underneath this on the way into the halls. While seeming slightly out of place amongst all the other concrete Mao-like buildings around it, the Theatre is nonetheless a beautiful sight and a pleasant addition to the Beijing landscape.

We went to check it out today, since it seemed like a great day to go for a bicycle ride.

[Click on any photo for a larger view]
Even though the main entrance was closed, lots of people still wanted to have their photos taken on the stairs down into it.
There are lots of serious buildings around to take away the charm of this area, if you were worried about it getting too hip or something.
Here is a crappy panorama I took of the entire thing.
The building is great in the daytime sun, and the little lake around it was frozen over.
Oddly enough, they had these guys out there in fishing boots trying to break the ice with little metal poles.
But no gloves. That musta sucked.
It's quite the attraction with the tourists.
Yah, still sucks.
Aaaaah! Mad American man, mad American man!
Some parts are glass where you can see inside the structure, others are just metal plates.
Hard to keep clean? Probably.
Still sucking ....
It's a bit chilly out.
 
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