Great World

The Great World (Chinese: 大世界; pinyin: Dà Shìjìe; Shanghainese: Da Syga) is an amusement arcade and entertainment complex located in Shanghai, China.

Great World was rebuilt in 1928 in an eclectic style borrowing largely from European Baroque, topped by a distinctive four-storey tower which quickly became a landmark.

[3] Great World had thrown open its doors for refugees fleeing the fighting in the Chinese and Japanese zones of the city for the relative safety of the Shanghai International Settlement.

[1] Writing of his visit in the mid-1930s, Hollywood film director Josef von Sternberg described, "On the first floor were gaming tables, singsong girls, magicians, pick-pockets, slot machines, fireworks, birdcages, fans, stick incense, acrobats, and ginger.

The third floor had jugglers, herb medicines, ice cream parlors, a new bevy of girls, their high collared gowns slit to reveal their hips, and (as a) novelty, several rows of exposed (Western) toilets.

The fifth floor featured girls with dresses slit to the armpits, a stuffed whale, storytellers, balloons, peep shows, masks, a mirror maze, two love letter booths with scribes who guaranteed results, rubber goods, and a temple filled with ferocious gods and joss sticks.

On the top floor and roof of that house of multiple joys a jumble of tightrope walkers slithered back and forth, and there were seesaws, Chinese checkers, mahjong, … firecrackers, lottery tickets, and marriage brokers.

[5] The building was built in a simple Vernacular Style, except a tall, Baroque-inspired spire in the centre, which is supported by grand order columns extending to the first floor.