The Nanjing Great Hall of the People (), which serves as the

Jiangsu Provincial People's Congress Jiangsu (; ; pinyin: Jiāngsū, alternatively romanized as Kiangsu or Chiangsu) is an eastern coastal province of the People's Republic of China. It is one of the leading provinces in finance, education, technology, and tourism, with its c ...

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 Nanjing (; , Mandarin pronunciation: ), alternately romanized as Nanking, is the capital of Jiangsu province of the People's Republic of China. It is a sub-provincial city, a megacity, and the second largest city in the East China region. T ...

Jiangsu Province Jiangsu (; ; pinyin: Jiāngsū, alternatively romanized as Kiangsu or Chiangsu) is an eastern coastal province of the People's Republic of China. It is one of the leading provinces in finance, education, technology, and tourism, with its ca ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

. 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 Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northeast ...

(1935), the central committee of the

KMT The Kuomintang (KMT), also referred to as the Guomindang (GMD), the Nationalist Party of China (NPC) or the Chinese Nationalist Party (CNP), is a major political party in the Republic of China, initially on the Chinese mainland and in Tai ...

passed a resolution which approved the construction of a meeting hall for the

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repre ...

in Nanjing, the capital of China at that time. Since the National Assembly would only meet infrequently, the proposal submitted by

H.H. Kung Kung Hsiang-hsi (; 11 September 1881 – 16 August 1967), often known as Dr. H. H. Kung, was a Chinese banker and politician in the early 20th century. He married Soong Ai-ling, the eldest of the three Soong sisters; the other two married Pres ...

() 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 Jiangsu Art Gallery, usually known as Jiangsu Provincial Art Museum (), is a museum in Nanjing, in Jiangsu province in China. It was founded in 1936, during the Nanjing decade, as China's first state level museum. In 1960, it was formally renamed ...

) 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 Daxinggong station (), is an interchange station of Line 2 and Line 3 of the Nanjing Metro. It started operations on 28 May 2010 along with the rest of Line 2. The interchange with Line 3 opened along with the rest of that line on 1 April 201 ...

of Nanjing Metro.

History

Building

Transportation

See also

References

Further reading