A new beginning for The Great World

The newly renovated Great World has invited artists and actors to perform as part of efforts to brand it as a venue that showcases intangible cultural heritage from around the world. [Photo by Gao Erqiang/China Daily]

Upon reopening, the park will showcase 50 types of intangible culture and experts will be on-site to demonstrate their skills.

"The inheritors of these heritages will perform on a rotational basis and we will be inviting as many of these inheritors as possible so that visitors can experience all the different heritage without having to travel around the world," said Xie, who noted that this new concept is aligned with the park's original purpose when it was built a century ago.

The park was immensely popular among locals and tourists till the 1990s when the country reopened its doors to the world and saw an influx of additional forms of entertainment such as karaoke and video games.

"Things were much simpler back then. When I was a child, I could stand in front of the distorting mirrors and laugh at my reflection for minutes," said a 76-year-old Shanghai native surnamed Zheng.

The same 12 mirrors that used to be a source of laughter for Zheng were one of the highlights of the park and they will remain in their original positions in the compound.