Shanghai Concert Hall

The Shanghai Concert Hall (上海音乐厅, Shànghǎi Yīnyuè Tīng) opened in 1930 as a cinema, and in 2003 the entire building was lifted and slid 66.46 m to the southeast to make room for the Yan’an Elevated Road. It still stands at the corner of Yan’an East Road and Xizang South Road, and it is now a concert hall.

It opened on 26 March 1930 as the Nanking Theatre (南京大戏院, Nánjīng Dàxìyuàn). Fan Wenzhao (范文照) and Zhao Shen (赵深), both Chinese architects, designed it. The business outlet Yicai reports that it had over 1,500 seats at the start. English Wikipedia describes the design as European in style.

After 1949 it became the Beijing Cinema (北京电影院); the date is 1949 on English Wikipedia and 1950 in the Yicai report. In 1959 it became the Shanghai Concert Hall, which Yicai describes as China’s first professional concert hall.

The move came later. The hall closed on 1 September 2002, and work began at the end of that year. The building travelled 66.46 m to the southeast and was raised twice, by 3.38 m in total. The move began on 15 April 2003, and Yicai puts the weight of the building at about 5,650 tonnes, while English Wikipedia says 5,800. Tongji University’s building relocation research centre and the company Shanghai Tianyan Building Relocation Engineering carried it out.

Sources disagree on when the hall was ready again. Yicai says it reopened at the new site on 1 October 2004, Chinese Wikipedia gives 1 January 2005 for the end of the relocation, and English Wikipedia gives dates in 2007 and 2008, which conflict with the others.

The hall closed again in March 2019 for maintenance and restoration, and reopened on 6 September 2020. It has 1,122 seats, 640 downstairs and 482 upstairs. It was listed as a Shanghai municipal cultural relic protection unit on 25 September 1989.