Wandering around in Beijing, you can appreciate magnificent ancient architecture and high buildings reflecting advanced technology. Let’s admire the architecture in Beijing that is permanent in history.

National Centre for the Performing Arts

As one landmark architecture, one of the Sixteen Landscapes in Beijing, the National Centre for the Performing Arts is located at the west of the Great Hall of the People, and it is composed of a main building, an underwater gallery on the south and north sides, underground parking lot, artificial lake and grasslands.

This huge public architecture includes four theaters, covering an area of 118.9 thousand square meters, and its overall floorage is about 220,000 square meters. Therefore, it’s the largest dome building, corresponding with the artificial lake offsite in a harmonious way.

The semi-ellipsoidal grand theater stands on the blue waves, and not far from it is the solemn Forbidden City. The ancient and modern times converge, which is like a microcosm of contemporary China that opens its door to the outside world.

The shell structure of the National Centre for the Performing Arts is composed of arc steel beams. More than 18000 titanium metal plates and more than 1200 ultra transparent glasses form a huge dome of 36000 square meters, which is not supported by a column. It is novel, avant-garde and unique in design, with the interior of the dome showing the beauty of radians, and it is a combination of tradition and modernity, as well as romance and reality.

Address: No. 2, West Chang'an Street, Xicheng District, Beijing

Parkview Green Fangcaodi, Beijing

Located on Dongdaqiao Road, Chaoyang District, Parkview Green Fangcaodi is an innovative building integrating a fashion shopping center, office building, art gallery and boutique hotel, as well as a shopping mall, and a place full of cultural atmosphere.

Walking into Parkview Green Fangcaodi, you will feel like entering a magic space. The architectural structure is unconstrained, and strange works of art can be seen everywhere. The longest indoor suspension bridge in Asia runs through the whole space. Besides, “The Shark and Man exhibition gallery is recommended by many netizens.

Those who have been to Parkview Green Fangcaodi have to admit its uniqueness. It’s bright because glass is used as the partition from the top to the floor. Walking among it, you can not only shop, and sit in a coffee shop, but also enjoy artistic works.

Address: No. 9, Dongdaqiao Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing

Galaxy SOHO

Galaxy SOHO challenges the common thinking of visitors both in terms of its coordinates and modeling. This silvery white tower building with a large chassis is composed of four egg-shaped buildings and looks like the Milky Way Nebula. Each building has an atrium that is integrated at different levels.

Galaxy SOHO has won the international architectural award awarded by the Royal Society of British Architects, with a total construction area of 330,000 square meters. The swirling angular design makes it look like “solidified magma”.

The Milky Way SOHO in the night makes people feel a sense of future through time and space.

Address: No. 3, Nanzhugan Hutong, Dongcheng District, Beijing

Lize SOHO

Lize SOHO is the swan song of the famous British architect Zaha Hadid, one of the world’s ten most beautiful buildings, and the world’s highest atrium building.

Looking up from the atrium on the first floor of Lize SOHO, you can see two single tower buildings on the left and right hover like a DNA double helix structure, and the planes of each floor rotate to 45 degrees layer by layer, forming the world's highest atrium with a height of 200 meters.

The facade of Lize SOHO is designed as a fish scale curtain wall, which is composed of more than 4000 special-shaped unit glasses. The streamlined antisymmetric surfaces of the two single towers are like two steel dragons winding upward, making people feel like they are in a science fiction world.

Address: Building 1, Yard 20, Lize Road, Fengtai District, Beijing

Translator: SHI Meiling

Reviewer: WANG Jiahui