SHENZHEN Opera House will most probably be built in the Dongjiaotou area of Shekou, according to a response from the city’s tourism administration to the suggestions of the city’s lawmakers.

Four candidates for the location of Shenzhen Opera House have been chosen by experts from different sectors, such as art, urban planning, architecture, industry and economy.

The final location will be decided by the city government among the four locations, including Dongjiaotou and Shenzhen Bay Super Headquarters Base in Nanshan District, according to the adminstration.

Dongjiaotou stands out among the candidates for its strategic location in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, adjacent to Shenzhen Bay Bridge, Shenzhen Bay Coastal Belt, Sea World and Prince Bay Cruise Homeport. It has a good surrounding environment, neighbors the international communities in Shekou and has sufficient land space for developing a landmark cultural facility, according to the tourism administration.

However, the location also has shortcomings, such as lack of public transport and auxiliary business facilities. Some traffic and development plans will need to be adjusted if the opera house project is finally located in Dongjiaotou, according to the administration.

Lawmakers suggested speeding up the construction of cultural facilities like Shenzhen Opera House at the annual session of the congress this year in order to satisfy the demand of the public for culture and art. The city initiated the construction project in 2016, but the location of Shenzhen Opera House has yet to be decided.

At a recent meeting, the city government decided to speed up the construction of 10 new cultural facilities, including Shenzhen Opera House, Shenzhen Hall of National Museum of China, Shenzhen Science and Technology Museum, Shenzhen Oceanic Museum, Shenzhen Nature Museum, New Hall of Shenzhen Art Museum and Shenzhen Activity Center for Juveniles.

Aside from the major cultural facilities, the city will endeavor to improve culture-themed neighborhoods, such as historic sites Dapeng Fortress, Nantou Ancient Town and Dawan Ancestral Residence, as well as Dafen Oil Painting Village, Bantian Print Base, Dalang Fashion Town, Sea World, OCT-LOFT and Huaqiangbei Science, Fashion and Culture Neighborhood.

The construction and planning of the projects will be initiated during the 13th Five-Year Plan period (2016-2020).

Compared to other first-tier cities like Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, Shenzhen still lags behind in cultural facilities. Beijing and Shanghai have 179 and 125 museums, respectively, while the number in Shenzhen is only 47, 14 fewer than in Guangzhou. As for performance venues, Shenzhen has 11, a quarter of the number in Beijing and Shanghai. (Han Ximin)