At No. 213 Minzhu Road, near the stone-paved thresholds of Red Sun Square, a futuristic circular structure rests like a fallen spacecraft. Built in the late 1990s with a fifty-million-RMB government investment, this concrete dome originally echoed with the dry, rhythmic clapping of administrative meetings. It was a quiet civic hall until late 2001, when a Shenzhen entrepreneur named Zhou Zhiqiang saw a different destiny for its circular walls, transforming the quiet assembly hall into a roaring engine of cultural memory.

On May 1, 2002, the director Zhou Peiwu unleashed the dance production Lishui Jinsha upon the newly modified stage. An eight-million-RMB technological overhaul filled the theater with the hum of imported Italian, American, and Taiwanese mixing consoles. Backdrops designed by the China National Opera and Dance Drama Theater rose against the circular walls. At night, the building shed its administrative gravity, its exterior LED facade projecting pulses of electric violet and crimson onto the Lijiang sky.

Inside, the air carries the scent of cured wood and mineral pigments from workshops where hands shape Yi lacquerware. In the galleries, visitors touch the heavy embroidery of traditional ethnic costumes and hear the resonance of Naxi stringed instruments. In May 2023, the launch of the Lexiang Lijiang Music Theatre in Hall 2 added the delicate acoustics of chamber music to the building's repertoire.

The building stands as a monument to a landmark public-private partnership. It is a place where the ancient heritage of Northwest Yunnan's Naxi, Yi, and Bai peoples is preserved through modern stagecraft, bridging the gap between municipal history and living art.