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December 23, 2016

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Century-old Shanghai Dashijie set to recapture glorious golden days

SHANGHAI Dashijie, a century-old, once popular entertainment center in downtown, will reopen for a trial operation on Wednesday to exhibit “intangible cultural heritages,” officials said.

The building, also known as the Great World Amusement Center, will officially open to the public in March, the Huangpu District government said.

It will only open to invited visitors during the trial operation, such as staff from local government agencies, university students and the media to test safety and management.

The center will initially open three days a week and gradually increase opening days after the Spring Festival. The building is located on Xizang Road S. in Huangpu.

Ticket prices for the official opening have yet to be announced, but free and discounted tickets will also be issued because the center will reopen as a “public service” facility, according to the district culture bureau, which will run the center.

Many of China’s intangible cultural heritages will be exhibited or performed in the center. Visitors can also taste traditional food inside, said Qiu Weidong, deputy director with the district’s culture bureau.

“The performances will mainly include Chinese traditional operas, folk music and handicraft shows, while some regulation training sessions will also be held in the center on traditional skills and etiquette,” Qiu said.

The city already has 55 national-level and 220 city-level intangible cultural heritages, including paper cutting, dough sculpture and lantern making.

The Dashijie entertainment center — a 16,800-square-meter property — was built in 1917 and used to stage Chinese operas, and host singers and acrobats. It also had cinemas, malls, snack bars and restaurants offering food from around the world.

The 12 “distorting mirrors” imported from the Netherlands in the lobby area became a popular attraction.

The center was once the place to go to, gaining a reputation as the “No. 1 Entertainment Venue in the Far East.”

Its popularity soared in the 1990s when some people tried to break a Guinness world attendance record there — and did so by receiving more than 20,000 visitors during the Labor Day holiday in 1995.

But its glory days were soon over after many new entertainment venues, such as amusement parks, opened up.

Traditional Huju and Yueju operas were no longer able to attract younger audiences.

Furthermore, as the French-styled building was listed as a historic protected venue, the operator could not launch major renovations or even install central air conditioning, causing numbers to fall. The center received less than 100 visitors a day after the year 2000 and it was closed in 2003 after an outbreak of the SARS epidemic.

The iconic distorting mirrors will be kept after the reopening, the district government said. Renovation on the building has restored its original appearance.

The building will be able to receive a maximum 3,300 visitors simultaneously after the reopening, and numbers will be limited during holidays and other peak periods.

District fire prevention and police authorities had management plans in place to ensure safety, Qiu said.

Inside the building, the main stage and corridors have also been restored. The decoration style and details on the stairs would be the same as that of a century ago, he added.




 

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