A cellist at the National Center for the Performing Arts, on September 17. Covered with a shell of more than 20,000 titanium panels and 1,200 huge laminated sheets of glass, the building, occupying a total area of about 149,500 square meters, rises like a gigantic pearl at the center of a 35,500-square-meter artificial lake, specifically created to render a near-holographic effect. (Xinhua)