Queen Victoria Building
The Queen Victoria Building, commonly known as QVB, is located on George Street, the busiest street in the heart of Sydney, the capital of New South Wales. It is adjacent to the Sydney Town Hall and St. Andrew's Cathedral, and is the largest shopping center in Sydney. The famous fashion designer Pierre Cardin praised it as "the most beautiful shopping center in the world".
The Queen Victoria Building was completed in 1898, and the building itself is a domed Roman-style structure. For Australians, the Queen Victoria Building is not just a shopping center; it is a place for leisure, a witness to history, and a source of national pride.
The Queen Victoria Building that we appreciate today, whether it be the glass dome, the stained glass windows, the spiral staircases, the arches, the columns, the railings, or the intricately patterned floor tiles, has all been preserved in its original form.
The Queen Victoria Building itself is a domed Roman-style structure, with a glass dome standing at the center of the top. The shopping center is 190 meters long and 30 meters wide, occupying almost an entire block of George Street. Inside the building, there are over 180 shops, cafes, and restaurants, symbolizing Sydney's upscale shopping centers. The food court underground and the shops on the first floor have a local flair, offering many local brands; the upper levels feature international luxury stores such as Polo, Ralph Lauren, and Papoucci; on the second floor, one can also admire a collection of historical artifacts: such as the British royal jewelry display, an extremely ornate Chinese jade bridal sedan chair (the only one known to have been brought overseas), the distinctive 'Royal Clock' and 'Great Australia Clock', as well as a jade tree, among others.