Shanghai Landmark Building -- Shanghai Exhibition Center

Shortly after the founding of new China, in order to introduce the brilliant achievements of the Soviet Union in the economic, cultural and construction fields, and learn from the experience of the Soviet Union, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China decided to hold the Soviet Union's economic and cultural achievements exhibition in Shanghai in March 1955.

To build such a large-scale exhibition, there must be an exhibition hall suitable for it.

On December 6, 1953, Pan Hannian, vice mayor of Shanghai, sent a letter to Premier Zhou Enlai to ask for the location of the exhibition.

The Soviet Union is also responsible for the exhibition, Bao Lixin Ke, engineer Achmann and so on.

At that time, three places were chosen as the site: one is the cultural square, that is, the old running dog farm, the two is the old garden of hate garden, and the three is Dahua farm.

Only one thousand and five hundred or six hundred square meters of the original building for the exhibition can be built in the cultural square. If the exhibition hall is built here, it is still necessary to occupy large venues and surrounding spaces for the assembly and performance, and the building of 6500 square meters of land requisition must be enough.

The conditions of the Dahua farm are not satisfactory and will not be considered.

However, the site of the same garden is in line with the requirements of building a permanent exhibition venue, regardless of its area or location.

In May 4, 1954, the Sino Soviet friendship building was built at the old site of the Hal Tong Garden, and it was completed in March 1955, Fei Shishi month.

The design was presided over by the Central Design Institute of the former Soviet Union. The main architect was architect Andreyev and engineer Achmann.

At that time, the Chinese side completed the coordination design with the East China Architectural Design Institute, and then completed the design of the two East and west two pavilions from the former civil architectural design institute.

The whole building covers an area of 25 thousand square meters, with an area of 54108 square meters, with an exhibition area of more than 20 thousand square meters.

The whole design is greatly influenced by the Soviet Union's similar buildings, which is very similar to the Moscow national economic achievements exhibition hall. Both belong to the typical Russian Baroque architecture style, especially in the main building and the square and the fountain in the center of the architectural complex. The inspiration may come from the middle section of the famous Admiralty Building in Fort Peter. The tower and the golden spire of the three buildings are very similar in terms of volume, proportion and detail. Only the yachting sailing boats have been replaced by five pointed stars in one of the two galleries, one is gold and the other is red.

The Shanghai Exhibition Center complex is symmetrically arranged according to the central axis. The three main outdoor squares are built around the building, and several green courtyards are separated by the corridor between the buildings. The style and form are similar or consistent with those of some classical palaces in Europe since sixteenth Century.

Its interior and exterior decoration construction also reflects the Russian classicism decoration style. In some details, there are decorative symbols reflecting the political atmosphere at that time and some traditional Chinese decorative practices and patterns.

In building materials, a large number of colorful coloured terrazzo floors, water and stone walls and copper fittings were used.

The five steeple towers of the preface used a large number of gold veneers. Many important natural stones, white marble relief, and colored mosaic glass were used in important entries and key parts.

The use of these materials was very rare for the national power at that time.

In 1984, the Sino Soviet friendship building was renamed the Shanghai Exhibition Center.