Shanghai Entertainment

China Travel Services

Shanghai has always had a moderately healthy cultural scene, with cinemas showing foreign and Chinese films, and theatres featuring opera, dance, drama, acrobatics and puppets. To find out what's on and where, look out for the weekly "Around Shanghai" section of the China Daily, or read the "What's on" section of Shanghai Talk. For many events it's worth either booking at the relevant venue in advance (try to have your requirements written out in Chinese), although you may be lucky just turning up on the night of the performance.

The most important venue is the huge, new multi-purpose theatre (62798600) in the Shanghai Centre on Nanjing Xi Lu which hosts concerts, ballet, opera and acrobatics of international standard. For Beijing Opera, there's an additional venue on Fuzhou Lu (south side) just opposite Renmin Park, while the nightly acrobatics performances have recently moved to what used to be the Lyceum Theatre, home of that mainstay of colonial life, the British Amateur Dramatic Society, located just opposite the Jinjiang Hotel on the corner of Changle Lu and Maoming Lu. The nightly acrobatics show by the famous Shanghai Acrobatics Troupe is a superb spectacle. In Western terms it's more of a circus, including tumbling, juggling, clowning, magic and animal acts. Some of these skills - sword swallowing, fire eating and the amazing balancing acts - were developed as long ago as the Han dynasty. Others have taken on a trashier look featuring motorbikes, spectacular costumes and even a giant panda driving a car. Tickets can be bought on the same day from a window outside the theatre, and performances usually take place at 7.30 pm.

There are plenty of cinemas in Shanghai, some of them dating back to the pre-1949 days. All foreign films are dubbed into Chinese. For those interested in English language films, Malone's bar (part of a Canadian chain) has a weekly film night on Wednesdays, and the British Council also shows films from time to time.

Of the venues where you can hear classical music, one of the most pleasant has to be the Shanghai Conservatory of Music at 20 Fenyang Lu, south of Huaihai Lu, quite near Changshu Lu metro station. Established in 1927 as a college for talented young musicians, it continues to train many of the infant prodigies who arise in China at regular intervals. There are performances here every Sunday evening at around 7 pm. To find the ticket office, go in through the main entrance and turn immediately right, until you come to a notice board; the office is on the third floor of the building opposite this place. It's best to book a day or two in advance to be sure of a seat. Tickets are incredibly cheap – just a few yuan (Chinese speakers can call 64370137 ext 2166 to make enquiries). Other theatres for classical music include the Shanghai Concert Hall at 523 Yan'an Dong Lu, and the Jinjiang Hotel Auditorium.

For a little taste of everything, the Great World Entertainment Center is unbeatable. Standing in neon-lit splendour at 1 Xizang Zhong Lu, next to the People's Park on the corner of Guangdong Lu, it opened in the 1920s as an even bigger complex of buildings putting on every conceivable kind of entertainment. It now consists of four floors with two auditoriums on each, surrounding a central well with an open-air stage. Staircases fly off in all directions; supposedly one used to have a dummy doorway at the top, through which ruined gamblers could step to their deaths at the climax to an unsuccessful evening. Peripheral amusements include dodgems, a Hall of Mirrors, snooker, bowling and video games, but in addition there are simultaneous performances of Beijing Opera, a large-scale puppet theatre, at least one movie, talent shows, gyrating pop singers and discos. The main stage features non-stop acrobatics, clowning and comedy. You can wander at will from one room to another, walking to the front, for example, to examine the opera orchestra at close range and then leaving when the plot gets too complicated. There is a single ticket giving admission to the whole complex; the last ticket is sold at 8.30 pm.

(From guides.travel.roughguides.com)