A new landmark for cultural activities is being planned in Shanghai as the city aims to become a global center for the performing arts.

The construction of the Shanghai Grand Opera House started on Wednesday. The landmark shaped like a Chinese fan is scheduled to be completed along the Huangpu River in five years. With the completion of the building, a gap in China's lack of opera houses will be filled, says Chen Ping, former director of the National Center for Performing Arts in Beijing.

"Shanghai has made an unprecedented, pioneering and visionary decision to build an opera house of such grandeur and scale," he said in an interview.

The new opera house will not just be a performing venue but also a creative base for opera productions, he added.

Opera is often named as "the jewel in the crown of the performing arts," and Shanghai has given emphasis to the development of the art form.

The opera house is an important step in the city's ambition to build itself into an Asian center for the performing arts, says Lin Hongming, head of the preparation group for operating the new theater.

In Tokyo, 40,000 ticket-selling performances take place every year. Shanghai has to look up to Tokyo in terms of the number of shows in order to win the recognition as an Asian center for the performing arts, and "the construction of new theater spaces will leverage greater potential for the performing arts market", Lin adds.

Located at the site of the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai's Pudong New Area, the opera house will cover an area of 146,338 square meters. It has been designed with three performing halls, with 2,000 seats, 1,200 seats and 1,000 seats respectively, and the spaces will include rehearsal rooms, writing rooms and art education facilities.

The opera house is expected to hold 650 performances and receive 650,000 visitors in the first year after its opening. In the first five years, an average of 720 performances every year are expected to be staged.

Classical Western operas, Chinese opera productions, choruses and cantatas will be performed in the largest hall with 2,000 seats, while experimental opera productions, operettas and recitals will take place in the hall of 1,200 seats. The smaller hall of 1,000 seats will be a convertible space for shows using innovative props, new technology and bel canto performances targeting young audiences and international tourists.

The opera house will have a spiral staircase enabling visitors to access the roof, which will be used for outdoor performances and other activities. The building has been being designed like an unfolding fan by Norwegian architecture firm Snohetta, in partnership with Shanghai's East China Architectural Design and Research Institute.

Their objective is to build "a theater for the future", Lin says, adding that 50 years from now, the new opera house will be recognized as an established landmark like the Metropolitan Opera House in New York and the Teatro Alla Scala in Milan.

The Shanghai Conservatory of Music launched the new Shangyin Opera House in September. According to head of the school, baritone Liao Changyong, the two opera houses will play different roles in the promotion of opera and nurturing the arts. He hopes that the two houses will collaborate in the future in the fields of research, international exchanges and education.