Shanghai will renovate Culture Square in Xuhui District and turn it into the country's first underground theater before Shanghai Expo 2010, a local newspaper reported on Tuesday.

The stage will be as deep as five floors underground, while seats will be up to three floors above ground, Shanghai Morning Post said, citing Shanghai Construction Group.

The theater will have 2,000 seats, the report added.

An underground square will also be built with the theater.

A large scale "urban forest" will surround the new theater.

A fountain and landscape lights around the theater will act in concert with the performances inside.

Culture Square is at the junction of Yongjia Road and Shanxi Road. It was the most popular theater in the city in the 1980s.

The square was renovated into the largest flower market in eastern China in 1997. The 15,000-square-meter Jingwen Flower Market sold 3.5 billion flowers every year. More than 70 percent of the city's flowers were sold at this market, the report said.

The newspaper claimed many people hoped the government would turn it back into a theater.

The market has been closed and the flower shops will move to either Caojiadu Flower Market in Jing'an District or Shuangji Garden in Pudong New Area, previous reports said.

(Shanghai Daily March 19, 2008)