Twenty-seven years ago today, on April 13th, 1998 (March 17th, 1998 in the lunar calendar), the design scheme of the National Centre for the Performing Arts was subject to international bidding. The construction of the National Centre for the Performing Arts was included in the "10th Anniversary Project of National Day" at that time in the early days. It was not until April 1998 that the State Council approved the construction of the National Centre for the Performing Arts project that the dream of Chinese people for many years was finally put into practice. As early as 1958, Chairman Mao and the CPC Central Committee decided to build a number of large-scale public buildings in Beijing, the capital, to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, and the National Center for the Performing Arts was also scheduled at that time. Premier Zhou Enlai personally determined the construction site and approved the design scheme. In October, 1996, the resolution of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on several issues concerning strengthening the construction of socialist spiritual civilization adopted by the Sixth Plenary Session of the 14th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China clearly pointed out that the National Museum, the National Centre for the Performing Arts and other important national key cultural projects should be built in a planned way. In October 1997, the Political Bureau of the Central Committee entrusted Beijing to build the National Grand Theatre. In January 1998, the National Centre for the Performing Arts Construction Leading Group was established. The National Centre for the Performing Arts Project Owners Committee, led by Beijing and attended by the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Construction, was set up, and the architectural design scheme was determined to be mainly invited for international bidding. In April, 1998, the State Council issued the Notice of the State Council Approving and Forwarding the Request for Instructions from the National Development Planning Commission on Issues Concerning the Construction of the National Centre for the Performing Arts, and approved the construction of the National Centre for the Performing Arts project. On the 13th of that month, an international invitation competition for architectural design schemes began. After two rounds of competitions, three revisions, and extensive solicitation of opinions from architectural design experts, theater technical experts, artists, and some deputies to the National and Beijing National People's Congress and CPPCC members, the recommended scheme was determined. On July 22, 1999, the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee discussed and agreed that the architectural design scheme of the National Centre for the Performing Arts should adopt the design scheme designed by Paris Airport Company and coordinated by Tsinghua University. ¡î In February, 2000, Beijing Urban Construction, Hong Kong Construction, and Shanghai Construction Engineering Consortium were determined as the general contractors for the construction of the National Centre for the Performing Arts project through national bidding. Beijing Shuangyuan Supervision Company won the bid as the project supervision unit. On April 1, 2000, the State Planning Commission approved the National Grand Theatre project to start the preliminary preparation of the construction site. On December 13th, 2001, the National Centre for the Performing Arts project officially started construction. On April 17, 2003, the main structure of the National Centre for the Performing Arts project was capped. On December 2, 2003, the installation of the steel structure of the shell of the National Centre for the Performing Arts was completed. The hoisting of the entire shell steel structure only took 76 working days, creating the "Chinese speed" of the installation of the giant shell steel structure. In September 2007, the National Centre for the Performing Arts announced that the project was basically completed.