Shanghai Grand Theatre

You can recognize this building as the one that looks like a boat hull or a lemon wedge resting on top of a square. Built in 1998, the theater hosts the city’s largest musical and theatrical productions (The Lion King, Mamma Mia!  And Hairspray), and it’s worth seeing what’s on when you’re in town. I went to an acrobatic performance and saw plate spinners, contortionists and cyclists who put on a show as astonishing as those of Cirque du Soleil but with no special effects or expensive equipment, only pure daring and physical prowess.