Great Hall of the People

Zhang Bo · Beijing, China · 1959

Key featuresColonnaded state hall built in ten months, with a 10,000-seat auditorium under a starred ceiling.

Monumentality
Axis
Public space

Architect: Zhang Bo
Place: Beijing, China
Year: 1959
Typology: Civic
Movement: Historic precedent
Region: East Asia

See it on the wall

About Great Hall of the People

The Great Hall of the People is a state building situated to the west of Tiananmen Square in Beijing. It is used for legislative and ceremonial activities by the government of China. The People's Great Hall functions as the meeting place for the full sessions of China's supreme state organ of power, the National People's Congress, which occurs every year during March along with the national session of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, a political advisory body. The Great Hall is also the meeting place of the National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party, which, since the 12th conference in 1982, has occurred once every five years, and the party's Central Committee which meets approximately once a year.

Designed to symbolize the national unity and ethnic equality of the nation, the Great Hall embodied the new Chinese character of time in its features, proportion and details. The building covers 171,801 square meters (1,849,250 sq ft) of floor space, it is 356 meters (1,168 ft) in length and 206.5 meters (677 ft) in width. The centre's highest point reaches 46.5 meters (153 ft). At the eaves of the main gate hangs the national emblem of the PRC.

The Great Hall of the People consists of three sections.

Shortened from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.