The Suzhou Culture and Arts Centre was designed by Paul Andreu, the architect behind China’s National Grand Theatre.
It is also a landmark building beside Jinji Lake. It connects directly to the metro station below, and there are some simple dining options in the passageway.
The complex includes the Suzhou Grand Theatre, Su Yi Cinema, Suzhou Ballet Theatre, Suzhou Jinji Lake Art Museum, Industrial Park Cultural Center, Su Yi Training,
Suzhou Industrial Park Library Su Yi Branch, Basse Contemporary Art Museum, as well as a Starbucks, a Dayu Teppanyaki, and a Songhelou restaurant.
It is very close to the hotel; just cross a bridge and walk through an area called Moon Harbor to get there.
Basically, it only takes about 10-15 minutes on foot. This Moon Harbor is actually a dining district somewhat like Sinan Mansions,
but perhaps because the operators haven’t done a great job, it has ended up looking very local…
But anyway, the seats by the lake are still quite popular~~~
Of course, it really is a pier as well, with scheduled boats running back and forth to Peach Blossom Island in the middle of Jinji Lake.
There are also boats from Peach Blossom Island to the Ferris Wheel Park~~~
Moon Harbor
Moon Harbor
Walk over here and you arrive at the Suzhou Culture and Arts Centre. The overall architecture is quite spectacular~~~~
It’s just that… leaving the soft furnishings and promotional materials to a local team was a disaster…
No matter how high-end and upscale the exterior looks, once you see these large Song-style font banners inside…
Both the content and the design leave me speechless… It really ruins the entire visual effect…
In comparison, Mr. I.M. Pei’s Suzhou Museum is much better handled; I suppose that’s mainly because he himself is from Suzhou~~
He probably brought in his own team or had the VI properly established~~
There are also quite a few commercial exhibitions and the like in between, such as this one~~~
An art installation somewhere by the lake~~
Actually, I mainly came here to watch a movie~~~ Speaking of which, the cinema is pretty good—great value for money.
It’s just that you need to go to the service desk in advance to rent 3D glasses for 10 yuan~~~ Quite interesting…
Photos in this post taken with SONY NEX-5R + 16-50 f3.5-5.6, post-processed in Lightroom.
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