Nanjing Great Hall of the People

The Nanjing Great Hall of the People (), which serves as the Jiangsu Provincial People's Congress and the National Theatre of Drama and Music and Art Gallery, was built in 1936, and is located at No. 264, Changjiang Road, Xuanwu District, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China. The gross floor area being 5,100 square meters, the 4 story hall was built up of reinforced concrete, facing south. Its original name was the National Great Hall () and the hall was renamed in 1949.

History

In September of the 24th year of the Republic of China (1935), the central committee of the KMT passed a resolution which approved the construction of a meeting hall for the National Assembly in Nanjing, the capital of China at that time. Since the National Assembly would only meet infrequently, the proposal submitted by H.H. Kung () and four others also utilized the hall as the National Theatre of Drama and Music.
The organizing committee of the National Theater of Drama and Music and the neighboring Art Gallery held a public bidding. According to the evaluation of the organizing committee, the design proposal of Xi Fuquan (), an architect from the Gongli Engineering Department (), was chosen as the best one, and Guan Songsheng's (), design and Zhaoshen's () ranked second and third respectively. On November 20, the organization announced the bidding in public, which was awarded to Shanghai Construction Factory of Lugen's Engineering Office (). The designer was Xi Fuquan, and the supervisor was Li Zongkan () from Tao's Engineering Office (). On May 5 of the 25th year of Republic of China (1936), the construction of the great hall was completed. The great hall was used as the National Theatre of Drama and Music as well.

Building

Seen from the front, the middle part of the building is taller, with the two sides spreading symmetrically; the design emphasizes vertical lines with simplicity and modernism. In addition, cornices, doors and windows, canopies and hallway are decorated with simplified traditional Chinese patterns. There are more than 3,400 seats in the hall, which is equipped with automatic voting systems and translation devices. The hall is fully air conditioned, a very modern feature at the time it was built.

The National Art Gallery (modern day Jiangsu Provincial Art Museum) is located opposite the hall, and their style are in accordance with each other as an integral whole.

Transportation

The building is accessible within walking distance north of Daxinggong Station of Nanjing Metro.

See also

* Jiangsu Art Gallery
* National Assembly (Republic of China)

References

Further reading

{{Jiangsu topics

National theatres
Buildings and structures in Nanjing
Theatres in China
Major National Historical and Cultural Sites in Jiangsu
Art galleries established in 1936
1936 establishments in China
Tourist attractions in Nanjing