Work on city's new cultural landmarks initiated

Writer: Han Ximin  |  Editor: Stephanie Yang  |  From: Shenzhen Daily  |  Updated: 2020-01-07

Shenzhen started construction on three new cultural facilities, namely Shenzhen Creative Design Hall, Shenzhen Science & Technology Museum and New Hall of Shenzhen Art Museum at a ceremony Monday, marking the start of construction of the city’s 10 new landmark cultural facilities.

Shenzhen Party chief Wang Weizhong announced the start of the work and attended the foundation-laying ceremony along with Mayor Chen Rugui.

A computer-generated image of Shenzhen Opera House.

The New Hall of Shenzhen Art Museum is in the Shenzhen North Railway Station business area in Longhua District.

The Shenzhen Science & Technology Museum is located in Guangming CBD. The 2.1-billion-yuan (US$300-million) project occupies 66,000 square meters of land and has a 50,000-sqm park for science popularization. It will be completed in 2023.

The Shenzhen Creative Design Hall will be located in Houhai, Nanshan District.

The city unveiled a plan last December to build 10 new cultural landmarks.

The other planned cultural landmarks include Shenzhen Opera House, Shenzhen Reform and Opening-up Exhibition Hall, Shenzhen Marine Museum, Shenzhen Nature Museum, Shenzhen Innovation and Creative Design Academy and Shenzhen Music Academy.

The facilities will be completed by around 2024.

Three of them — Shenzhen Marine Museum, Shenzhen Museum Academy and Shenzhen Nature Museum — will be built in the city’s eastern districts.

The nature museum will settle in Pingshan, which is known for its unique and beautiful natural environment, cultural heritage and innovation vitality.

The Shenzhen Marine Museum will be built in Dapeng New Area, and Shenzhen Music Academy will be built in the International University Town area in Longgang.

Also at the ceremony, the city initiated the construction of Shenzhen No. 2 Library, Shenzhen Juvenile Football Training Base and Shenzhen Bay Culture Square.

At Shenzhen Bay Super Headquarters on Monday, the city also initiated the construction of 153 new projects that involve a total investment of 110.2 billion yuan. They include 14 industrial development projects, 111 infrastructure projects and 28 urban rejuvenation projects.

In the 1980s, Shenzhen built eight landmark cultural facilities, including Shenzhen Museum, Shenzhen Library and Shenzhen Grand Theater.

However, compared to other first-tier cities like Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, Shenzhen still lags behind in cultural facilities.

Beijing and Shanghai have 179 and 125 museums, respectively, while the number in Shenzhen is only 47, 14 fewer than in Guangzhou. As for performance venues, Shenzhen has 11, a quarter of the number in Beijing and Shanghai.