the building
it resembles the Chinese character 山(mountain)
which is exactly the Mandarin of Dr. Sun, 孫中山
an octagonal building
which also resembles the shape of a mountain
from every single perspective
the main auditorium
3,240 seats
opened officially for commercial purpose since 1985
concerts of Roman Tam 羅文
Italian Terrazzo pillars 水磨石柱子
Oriental mosaic tiles 瓷磚天花
the German skylight roof window 德國天窗
marble staircase 白瓷階梯
Oriental Octagon-motif windows
providing natural lighting to
the whole circular pathway
surrounding the main auditorium
Palace brass lantern 宮廷銅燈
The Golden Dome 金珀馬賽克-金頂
36166 pieces of French gold-leaf mosaic tiles
Oriental Architecture Element
photo taken from the official site
the translation was taken reference from
the information gallery in the memorial hall itself
Mr. Lu Yan Zhi 吕彦直
an architect graduate from University of Cornell
who won the open contest for design sketches
but unfortunately passed away
on the same year
the construction was initiated (1929-1931)
that pretty much accounts for
the fusion of Western technology and
Eastern design in each and every element
somehow sketches in black and white like this
always amazes me because
it is how building is always built from scratch
he too contributed to the design of
the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum in Nanjing,
where Dr. Sun was buried
therefore in one way or another
the two significant buildings do resemble each other
information about the funeral, the mausoleum and so on
are available in this particular memorial hall
one really interesting fact is that
Dr. Sun passed away in Beijing in the year of 1925
and was placed in the Temple of Azure Clouds 碧云寺
and only relocated and buried 4 years later
when the mausoleum was completed in 1929
on top of citizens all over the country,
diasporas all over the world were mourning
probably the most influential Chinese
revolutionist, politician, philosopher
ever in history
the symbol
the name of the building, 中山堂
merged into one single character
The Man Behind it All, Dr. Sun Yat-Sen
clarification regarding his name
(I) Sun Yat-sen 孫逸仙
is the general address by the Western world
was obtained during his education at Hong Kong
(II) Sun Wen 孫文
was how he usually addressed himself,
his given name by birth
(III) Sun Zhong-shan 孫中山 is
how we usually address him in Mandarin today,
surprisingly, it came from Nakayama (中山樵),
a Japanese name given by Tōten Miyazaki
革命尚未成功，同志仍須努力
was his last word in the will
which roughly brings out the meaning of:
the revolution is not over,
comrades still have to fight tougher
comrade’s note
last but not least
this is probably my favourite-st attraction in GuangZhou,
or else
I wouldn’t take the trouble to
read (almost) every single information on display
and continued on with further research
and somehow it does give me that kind of
“mesmerization” and amazement
just like how Royal Albert Hall did
ya.. I just can’t help putting these two together
