The music hall has been put onto a 1,800-ton armored concrete tray, which will help the 5,650-ton building move along tracks. Both the outside and inside of the building have been bound with steel structures.

In the coming ten days, the music hall will first be raised to a height of 1.5 meters and then moved 66.4 meters southeastwards from Yan'an Zhonglu Street to the crossroads of Ninghai Street and Longmen Street. At the new site, the building will be further raised by 1.88 meters, so that a new foundation can be molded to dovetail with the building.

Built in 1930, the Shanghai Music Hall was located in the south of People's Square in the center of Shanghai for 73 years, covering an area of 1,254 square meters. The building was designed by China's modern architects Fan Wenzhao and Zhao Chen and is one of the few Western-style buildings designed by Chinese in Shanghai.

The decision was made for relocation due to noises from neighboring areas. With the city's busiest expressway nearby, the aged building has been plagued by noises and exhaust gas. With its south and west walls close to a populated residential complex, daily chaos often burst into the music hall.

The relocation project is expected to be finished this May.

Project Manager Pei Jianping said the most crucial part of the project was the hoist before moving since the aged music hall was vulnerable to any sharp change of its inside force system.

A successful hoist means half done, Pei added.

Before the action, engineers had spent seven months strengthening the construction and collecting data on the inside force system, and during the hoist, data was collected by various instruments with every millimeter of change.

"This is the most careful binding of a package I've ever seen," said Zhang Ge, a worker at the site.

The new home will be surrounded by green land, and in the seven months following the relocation, the music hall will add more functions by enlarging stages and building basements and insulation belts.

"If successful, the Shanghai Music Hall will reopen on Jan. 1, 2004 and people will then enjoy a musical palace with both original flavors and modern characteristics," said Miao Luming, general manager of the music hall, stressing that the project would do its best to maintain the original styles.

The inside Western-style hall reveals classical Western construction styles in its poles, spiral staircases and the dome, which are of great value for observation and protection.

The Shanghai Music Hall still boasted top-level acoustics among local music halls according to relevant tests done last year and the music hall will try to maintain its traditional advantage of audio effects after relocation, Miao said.

(Xinhua News Agency April 9, 2003)