The National Centre for the Performing Arts (Chinese: 国家大剧院; literally: National Grand Theatre), and colloquially described as The Egg, is an opera house in Beijing, People’s Republic of China.
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The main building of the National Grand Theater consists of an exterior shell, within which are a 2,416-seat opera house, a 2,017-seat concert hall, a 1,040-seat theater, a lobby and other supporting facilities.
The exterior is a shell in the shape of a half ellipsoid with a long east-west axis of 212.20 meters and a short south-north axis of 143.64 meters. It is 46.285 meters tall, and it reaches to a maximum underground depth of 32.50 meters.
Most of the shell is covered by titanium panels, and it is broken in the middle by a curtain of glass that opens gradually from top to bottom. The pool surrounding the ellipsoid shell covers an area of 35,500 square meters, the main north entrance is an 80-meter-long corridor under the pool. The south entrance and other passages are under the pool too. The pool is surrounded by leisure squares made up of large greeneries.
(Source: bjchinese.bjedu.cn)
