SHISHI SACRED HEART CATHEDRAL

 

 

 

Shishi Sacred Heart Cathedral was built in 1863 and completed in 1888. It presents more than 130 years of history.

 

Since all the cathedral walls and pillars are made of granite and with its magnificent arches, towers, and window lattices with floral designs, the cathedral is the most distinctive architecture in Guangzhou, which attracts many tourists all over the world.

NEW LYCHEE BAY

 

 

How can you miss a fascinating and charming place that dates back 2,000 years ago?

 

Taking a wooden boat in this town on the emerald green water, you can enjoy stunning vistas and traditional buildings presenting the Lingnan culture along the banks. During the 2010 Asian Games, the Lingnan water town style was miraculously reproduced and many local and international tourist flocked to marvel and appreciate this attraction.

 

 

 

THE GRANITE STATUE OF FIVE GOATS

 

 

 

the Granite Statue of Five Goats is located in the west part of Yuexiu Park in central Guangzhou. It was erected in 1959 to honor the city's symbol. Legend has it that five celestial beings brought five goats into Guangzhou. The goats were all carrying rice, which indicated that they would make sure the area would always be free of famine.

 

Guangzhou has paid tribute to these benevolent goats by making them the city’s symbol and gaining the nickname “City of Goat.” The statue includes one goat looking far away, holding an ear of grain while the others play or graze below. With their different postures, beautiful shapes, and invoking fun, the Granite Statue of Five Goats is undoubtedly impressive.

XINGHAI CONCERT HALL

 

 

 

Built in 1998, Xinghai Concert Hall is one of China’s most influential performing arts venues and especially renowned for its impeccable acoustic.

 

Named after the prominent Chinese composer Xian Xinghai, Xinghai Concert Hall has won international acclaim for its acoustic structure design and outstanding operation. The largest performing space is the Symphony Hall, which seats 1,518 when all sections are in use. And the more intimate Chamber Hall holds an overall site capacity of 461. At the same time, the additional Art Salon Space accommodates 100 while the Music Space accommodates 200. Outside the building stretches a Music Cultural Square, which is capable of holding public occasions for thousands. Home to many premium musical instrumentsCthe pipe organ from Czech Republic, grand pianos from Germany and Japan, etc.Cas well as the versatile audio and video facilities, the Hall creates distinguished orchestral acoustics.

 

After twenty-one years of illustrious development, Xinghai Concert Hall has become one of South China’s most influential performance bases even the whole country. Guangdong Province is proud to have the Concert Hall as a famous local cultural brand. Many renowned orchestras and musicians had performed in Xinghai. Among them, there are Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Staatskapelle Dresden, New York Philharmonic Orchestra, Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Borodin String Quartet, Lincoln Center Jazz Band, Lorin Maazel, Evgeny Svtlanov, Christian Thielemann, Christoph Eschenbach, Andris Nelsons, Martha Argerich, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Itzhak Perlman, Sophie Mutter, and Yo-Yo Ma, to name a few. And with their successes, Xinghai has been proven to be among the bests of the concert halls for its high-quality professional service and impeccable acoustics.

 

As a top professional ground for esteemed musical performing and a prestigious cultural exchange terminal, Xinghai Concert Hall presents various types of performance from the largest symphony orchestras to intimate solo shows while holding various musical events such as Guangzhou Jazz Festival, Pops Concert, and Weekend Workshops, with an aim to attract more and more people to walk in and fall in love with music.

GUANGZHOU OPERA HOUSE

 

 

 

Guangzhou Opera House (GOH) is rated as one of the “10 Best Opera Houses Around the World” (USA Today) and “The World's Most Spectacular Theatres” (The Telegraph). Located in the center of CBD in Guangzhou, one of China's national core cities. As a cultural city icon, GOH contributes to strengthening the Canton area’s cultural content and reforming China’s cultural system by presenting diverse performing arts.

 

Designed by Dame Zaha Hadid, a British-Iraqi woman and the first female winner of the Pritzker Architecture Prize. GOH’s unique exterior is full of imagination, inspired by the idea of two rocks washed by the Pearl River. Her acoustic systems are designed by Sir Harold Marshall, the world’s top acoustic designer, achieving a first-class acoustic system and delivers perfect visual and sound effects for the opera houses. So far, GOH has been highly appreciated by architecture tycoons and artists worldwide and has already won numerous awards for China.

 

As the central enterprise directly under the Ministry of China Arts and Entertainment Group and the flagship theater belonging to China Performing Arts Agency, through new market-orientation, professional operation, and management mode, GOH has become the forefront of China reform for the cultural system. GOH strives to position itself as an international cultural center in South China, covering Macao, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, as well as a cultural production center in Asia, attracting artists and producers from around the world. GOH has integrated all kinds of domestic and foreign cultural resources to optimize the entertainment industry chain. From bringing back the best stage arts from abroad to providing a direction for advanced culture. Therefore, efforts will be made to become the best theatre in Guangzhou and around Southern China and become a global performing stage for outstanding artists.

 

GOH has built up a performing system of “One Festival & Four Seasons,” which are: "Guangzhou Arts Festival," "Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan & Canton season," "Chinese Musicians Performing season," "New Year season," and "Anniversary season." The repertoire selection is following the principle of "internationalism, innovation, originality, and exploratory.” GOH had gathered international art masters, famous orchestras, and brilliant programs, which lifts up GOH’s as one of the three performing platforms together with Beijing and Shanghai, bringing back to China’s southern area a revival trend of culture which has never happened. GOH’s artists include Maestro Zubin Mehta, Daniel Oren, Charles Dutoit, one of the world’s three tenors Carreras, the world-famous soprano Renee Fleming, Cecilia Bartoli, and He Hui, etc. The list of international orchestras that had performed at the GOH includes the Philadelphia Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, the Dresden National Symphony Orchestra, St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, etc. Through years of cultivation, the brand of "annual opera" has been built. Those grand opera productions have won many praises at home and abroad. The productions include Turandot, Tosca, Madame Butterfly, La Traviata, and Carmen. The corporation outcome with theatres such as the Rome Opera House, New York Metropolitan Opera, the Royal Opera Covent Garden Theatre, and top-level singers. Those grand productions have changed Guangzhou’s cultural ecology and made Guangzhou a world city for arts.

 

GOH is solidly carrying out art education activities through charity events and selling low price tickets to the public. To create "the Wireless Theatre" art life community, GOH integrates resources and focuses on the combination of technology and culture. Further, GOH is exploring cross over mode to make a creative diversity of arts and business through cross-industry, cross-domain, cross-regional cultural and artistic resources. So far, GOH has organized exhibitions with museums, crossover artists, and internationally famous brands. To avail itself of art platform advantages, GOH set up art training courses and built up two creative groups: children's chorus and children’s ballet. This is a brand new art training mode of "classroom * stage" for art talents.

 

GOH is not only a cultural landmark but also stands for a series of cultural symbols, modernity, and fashion. She is quietly leading the modern urban people to listen to classical music, experience culture, and indulge in the beauty of exquisite life. She embodies the spirit of the times, the pursuit for culture and art of Cantonese. With more and more confidence, GOH is stepping forward towards internationalization.