Plant Style Hall (植物风情馆), former Tropical Plant Pavilion of Expo 2016, Tangshan

The hall was built for the Tangshan International Horticultural Expo, held from 29 April to 16 October 2016 in Nanhu (South Lake) Park, laid out on a former mining subsidence zone. According to the entry published by the Taiwanese architecture magazine 台灣建築 (no. 245, February 2016), design ran from October 2013 to March 2014 and construction from March 2015 to May 2016, for the expo's investment company. The project is signed by the offices 森之國際設計 of Taipei and 三磊建築設計 of Beijing; 中益誠達建設 carried out the building and 北京乾景園林工程 the interior fit-out. The announced costs are 179 million yuan for the building, 15 million for the interior, 43 million for the landscape and 38 million for the curtain walls.

In January 2016 the press called it the "Tropical Plant Pavilion" (热带植物馆); the architecture magazine already names it the "Plant Style Hall" (植物風情館), a name that has stayed in use. The director of the Tangshan Botanical Garden said at the time that the large plants were in place and that the paving, ground cover and display layout remained to be finished before the expo opened. The hall then became a site of the Nanhu-Kailuan scenic area: a notice of 15 November 2022 announces free admission by reservation from 19 November 2022, Tuesday to Sunday.

According to the magazine, the building covers 11,590.7 m² at ground level and 13,169.4 m² of floor area, over one basement and three floors above ground, on a 25,643.7 m² site. For its part the Tangshan Botanical Garden announced about 13,000 m² in total in 2016, including 7,000 m² of indoor exhibition space. The concept takes up the natural cut faces of ore: a faceted volume whose inclined planes continue into the landscape as slopes, steps and pools, in tones of grey and black. The materials named are precast concrete panels imitating stone, glass curtain walls, aluminium panels and a steel frame.

A project summary seen on the om.cn portal mentions a curved thin shell of 118 × 125 m combining glazed partitions and a steel space frame. Besides the plant hall, the programme included a "vertical farm" and a science space with a desert-plant zone over three levels, plus a café and a shop.

The hall holds 1,033 species. In 2016 the director of the botanical garden described it in six zones: palms, flowering plants, orchids, rainforest, desert and fruit plants. A 2023 local guide (Bendibao) speaks of five landscape zones (rainforest, "four seasons", fruit plants, desert plants) and one science zone, and presents it as Hebei's first large tropical plant hall.

The same official announced five rainforest "wonders" to look for: buttress roots, strangler trees, epiphytic and parasitic plants, drip-tip leaves and old stems that flower again. Among the plants the press saw on site are tall palms, banyans with tangled roots and lemon trees. The science zone is used for educational activities for young people, and the hall is presented as one of Tangshan's main places for botanical study.

The hall stands in the heart of the former expo site, in Nanhu Park, and a June 2026 notice lists a "Plant Style Hall gate" (植物风情馆门) among the scenic area's six gates. Its indoor climate makes it usable in winter: the January 2016 press already called it spring-like while it was cold outside, and a 2024 visitor finds it reminiscent of Xishuangbanna.

It combines with a walk around the lake, which the same visitor says can be done by bike or boat, and with the Kailuan National Mine Park, which has a gate of its own. Free admission by reservation dates from the 2022 notice: it is best to check the policy in force before coming.