Beijing Exhibition Center (20180130133602)

The Beijing Exhibition Center () was established in 1954 as a comprehensive exhibition venue in

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), Chinese postal romanization, alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the Capital city, capital of the China, People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's Li ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

.Beijing Discover. Beijing Tourism website
/ref> Built in the Sino-Soviet architectural style that was popular in the 1950s, the Beijing Exhibition Center contains three large exhibition halls as well as

museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make th ...

s. It has a theater hall () with 1,000 seats, playing a wide range of shows including Chinese plays, Western and Chinese operas and ballets, musicals and rock concerts. It also hosts the

Moscow Restaurant Moscow Restaurant (Chinese: 莫斯科餐厅, Pinyin: Mòsīkē Cāntīng) is a Russian restaurant located in Xicheng District, Beijing. Founded in 1954 as part of the former Soviet Exhibition Center, the restaurant was intended to foster friend ...

, one of the first Western restaurants in China.

History

Sino-Soviet Friendship

Formerly known as the Soviet Exhibition Center, the venue was built by Soviet architects to promote Sino-Soviet friendship. The idea was first proposed by Chinese politician

Li Fuchun Li Fuchun (; May 22, 1900 – January 9, 1975) was a Chinese Communist revolutionary and politician. He served as a Vice Premier of the People's Republic of China. Biography Li Fuchun was born in Changsha, Hunan Province. After completing middl ...

as part of an effort to showcase the modernity of the USSR. Three other exhibition centers were built in

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Chinese, Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four Direct-administered municipalities of China, direct-administered municipalities of the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the ...

Guangzhou Guangzhou (, ; ; or ; ), also known as Canton () and Chinese postal romanization, alternatively romanized as Kwongchow or Kwangchow, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Guangdong Provinces of China, province in South China, sou ...

, and

Wuhan Wuhan (, ; ; ) is the capital of Hubei Province in the People's Republic of China. It is the largest city in Hubei and the most populous city in Central China, with a population of over eleven million, the ninth-most populous Chinese city a ...

. Along with galleries of Soviet industrial technology, the venues exhibited Soviet paintings, ballet, and cuisine. Chinese politicians such as

Mao Zedong Mao Zedong pronounced ; also Romanization of Chinese, romanised traditionally as Mao Tse-tung. (26 December 1893 – 9 September 1976), also known as Chairman Mao, was a Chinese communist revolutionary who was the List of national founde ...

and

Liu Shaoqi Liu Shaoqi ( ; 24 November 189812 November 1969) was a Chinese revolutionary, politician, and theorist. He was Chairman of the NPC Standing Committee from 1954 to 1959, First Vice Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party from 1956 to 1966 and ...

were delighted at the exhibition, seeing it as a promise that the still rural China would be industrialized to the same extent as the USSR. For many Chinese people, the exhibition centers were the first time that they had seen modern technology and Western culture outside of media, and in total, the first year of exhibitions drew more than 11 million visitors at the four different venues. In the 1950s, people would gather at the exhibition center to celebrate important events such as college graduations or weddings. At a time when many students wished to pursue an education in the Soviet Union, those selected to study abroad would make a pilgrimage to the exhibition center to commemorate the beginning of their journey. At the center of the exhibition center was an open-air theater where Soviet troupes would perform

Swan Lake ''Swan Lake'' ( rus, Лебеди́ное о́зеро, r=Lebedínoye ózero, p=lʲɪbʲɪˈdʲinəjə ˈozʲɪrə, link=no ), Op. 20, is a ballet composed by Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky in 1875–76. Despite its initial failur ...

, the first ballet performance for many Chinese people, and the style of Soviet ballet would heavily impact Chinese ballet. At the height of Sino-Soviet friendship in the 1950s, it was fashionable to sing Russian songs such as Moscow Nights and Katyusha, learn the Russian

accordion Accordions (from 19th-century German ''Akkordeon'', from ''Akkord''—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a ree ...

, go

ice skating Ice skating is the self-propulsion and gliding of a person across an ice surface, using metal-bladed ice skates. People skate for various reasons, including recreation (fun), exercise, competitive sports, and commuting. Ice skating may be per ...

at the Shichahai skating rink, and play

chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to dist ...

. People saw this as a way to foster friendship and understanding with the Soviet Union, with the dream of achieving international communist solidarity. As part of its mission to introduce Chinese people to Soviet culture, the center's

served common Russian fare such as

borscht Borscht () is a sour soup common in Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. In English, the word "borscht" is most often associated with the soup's variant of Ukrainian origin, made with red beetroots as one of the main ingredients, which g ...

and solyanka. With its high prices and exotic cuisine, dining at the restaurant became a status symbol for many young people, who would save up for months to take their partners on dates there. The restaurant was also the host for many state banquets and catered most of the Soviet embassy's events as well.

Sino-Soviet Split and Cultural Revolution

With the

Sino-Soviet split The Sino-Soviet split was the breaking of political relations between the China, People's Republic of China and the Soviet Union caused by Doctrine, doctrinal divergences that arose from their different interpretations and practical applications ...

and the

Cultural Revolution The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a sociopolitical movement in the People's Republic of China (PRC) launched by Mao Zedong in 1966, and lasting until his death in 1976. Its stated goa ...

, the Soviet Exhibition Center was renamed the Beijing Exhibition Center. The Moscow Restaurant was renamed the Beijing Exhibition Restaurant and was repurposed as a

cafeteria A cafeteria, sometimes called a canteen outside the U.S., is a type of food service location in which there is little or no waiting staff table service, whether a restaurant or within an institution such as a large office building or sch ...

that only served Chinese food. The import of Russian culture was forbidden. National architectural efforts such as the

Ten Great Buildings The Ten Great Buildings () are ten public buildings that were built in Beijing in 1959, to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. They were part of an architecture and urbanism initiative of Chairman Ma ...

develop a modernized style with traditional Chinese characteristics instead, and many Soviet-built buildings were demolished as part of this process. However, the Beijing Exhibition Center escaped this fate of demolition.

Today

Section 1952 of PRC70 Exhibition (20191203151228)

After the

reform and opening-up The Chinese economic reform or reform and opening-up (), known in the West as the opening of China, is the program of economic reforms termed "Socialism with Chinese characteristics" and "socialist market economy" in the People's Republic of Ch ...

, the venue was reopened. The Moscow Restaurant restored its original name and operation, although the Beijing Exhibition Center retained its new name. While the exhibition center is still known for its nostalgic and political history, the exhibitions halls now host a variety of events by private organizations such as art galleries.

Notes

External links