The Nantong Grand Theater lights up at night. [Photo by Peng Changqing for nantong.gov.cn]

The Nantong Grand Theater and Nantong Art Museum, two cultural landmarks of Nantong, East China's Jiangsu province, have attracted more than 400,000 visitors since it began operating in 2021.

Over the past year, the two cultural facilities have staged over 160 performances and organized 56 exhibitions and other cultural activities.

As of October, the Nantong Grand Theater had sold more than 150,000 tickets, mostly to young people. In 2022, the average attendance rate of each performance at the theater was 60 percent, maintaining an acceptable balance between receipts and payments.

The opening show of the Nantong Art Museum. [Photo by Gu Xin for nantong.gov.cn]

Since its official opening in late June last year, the Nantong Art Museum has become popular among lovers of literature and art. To date, nearly 280,000 people, one third of whom came from other cities, have visited exhibitions at the art museum.

The Nantong Grand Theater was designed by French modernist architect Paul Andreu (1938-2018) and features five shining flower petals shimmering on Zilang Lake.

Exhibition halls at the Nantong Art Museum. [Photo by Xu Peiqin for nantong.gov.cn]

The theater consists of five main venues: an opera house, a concert hall, a drama hall, a children's theater, and a multipurpose hall.

Also designed by Paul Andreu, the Nantong Art Museum features 21 exhibition halls, conference halls, multipurpose halls and warehouses for first-class art exhibitions.

Nantong Grand Theater

Address: No 68 Hudong Road, Chongchuan district, Nantong

Nantong Art Museum

Address: No 66 Hudong Road, Chongchuan district, Nantong

Opening hours: 9 am – 5 pm (Tuesday to Sunday; no entry after 4:30 pm)