When construction began on Guangzhou Opera House in 2005, the site was surrounded by farmland. As the building rose, so did the city around it. Guangzhou, in the sprawling industrial Pearl River Delta, had outgrown its traditional centre (based around the old city of Canton) and was expanding into Pearl River New City. It has since grown so fast and so far that, standing on top of any of the new Central Business District’s skyscrapers, the dense grey grid of the city spreads out on all sides as far as the eye can see until it is subsumed in the beige mist of pollution and cement dust from which it is still forming.
當廣州歌劇院(Guangzhou Opera House)于2005年破土動工時，周圍還全是農田。隨著工程的不斷推進，周圍的區域也很快隨之發展起來。地處規劃凌亂的珠江三角洲(Pearl River Delta)工業地帶的廣州，如今已經向遠離傳統市中心（圍繞廣州老城區而建）的地段發展，一直拓展至珠江新城(Pearl River New City)。廣州的發展如此迅猛，折射范圍如此之廣，所以站在新的中央商務區(Central Business District)的任何一幢高樓上眺望，看到的是人口稠密的灰格子布局的城市圈向四處拓展，一眼望不到盡頭，直至淺褐色的污染空氣和因大興土木而揚起的水泥粉塵混雜的天際處。