Museum sights in Shànghǎi
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Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Hall
The 3rd floor features Shanghai’s idealised future, with an incredible model layout of the megalopolis-to-come plus a dizzying Virtual World 3-D wrap-around tour complete with celebratory fireworks.
reviewed
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B
Taikang Road Art Centre
Xīntiāndì and Taikang Rd are based on a similar idea – an entertainment complex housed within a layout of traditional lòngtáng alleyways – but when it comes to genuine charm and vibrancy, Taikang Rd is the one that delivers. Also known as Tiánzǐfáng, this community of design studios, wi-fi cafes, and boutiques is the perfect antidote to Shànghǎi’s oversized malls and intimidating skyscrapers. With families still residing in neighbouring buildings, a community mood survives, and the area’s relative transport isolation has prevented it from being utterly swamped by tour groups.
There are three main north–south lanes (Nos 210, 248, 274) criss-crossed by irr…
reviewed
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C
Shanghai Museum
A tour de force, this museum of traditional Chinese art is the centrepiece of People’s Square, if not Shanghai, so bookmark a whole day. Top galleries include the Ceramics Gallery, Bronzes Gallery and Painting Gallery. Arrive early to avoid the queues. The Shanghai Museum also has an emporium. Items include facsimiles of the museum’s porcelain collection, and postcards and books on the Chinese arts, architecture, travel and language.
reviewed
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D
Shanghai History Museum
One of Shanghai’s top sights, this fun museum charts the city’s highs and lows from its days as a cotton-producing town to its grandiose, opium-wreathed heyday and beyond. Life-size models of traditional shops are staffed by realistic waxworks and some exhibits are hands-on or accompanied by creative video presentations.
reviewed
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E
Song Qingling Mausoleum
Despite its hard-edged communist layout, this green park is excellent for a stroll and for escaping the relentless Gǔběi skyline. Song Qingling herself is interred in a low-key tomb here, but she is memorialised in the Song Qingling Exhibition Hall ( 宋庆龄陈列馆; Sòng Qìnglíng Chénlièguǎn) straight ahead from the main entrance, which itself looks like a Chinese imperial tomb. Among the displays of Song memorabilia – including her black qípáo – is a telling photograph of Marxist Westerners reading from Mao’s Little Red Book back in the days when it was politically fashionable. The international cemetery here also contains a host of foreign gravestone…
reviewed
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F
Shanghai Museum of Natural History
Located in the former Cotton Exchange Building (built in 1923), the exhibits at this dusty and gloomy museum haven’t been touched since the 1950s – now that’s something! It is easily the city’s most forlorn attraction and is horribly out of date, but, like the Bund Sightseeing Tunnel, it’s a bizarre experience and it has its fans. The museum’s former chairman, the gangster Du Yuesheng, built the dramatic red-brick building across East Yan’an Rd as the Chung Wai Bank (with a private bullet-proof elevator). It’s all expected to go soon, though. City officials feel it’s something of an embarrassment and a new natural history museum (more in line with post-1950s s…
reviewed
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G
Shanghai Science & Technology Museum
This impressive space-age building aims at providing a fun educational experience. Kids will like the Light of Wisdom hall, with its hands-on science experiments, and the audiovisual rides (including an earthquake simulator) are fun but draw long queues. Surprisingly, there is nothing on Chinese science and technology (this is, after all, the land that brought us fireworks and the rudder). There are four theatres (two IMAX, one 4D and one outer space), that show themed films throughout the day (tickets Y20 to Y40; 15 to 40 minutes). When you need a break there’s a good food court for lunch; get your hand stamped with a pass if you want to return to the exhibits.
reviewed
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Post Museum
It may sound like a yawner, but the Post Museum is actually a pretty interesting place. It explores postal history in imperial China, which dates back to the 1st millennium BC and used an extensive pony express to relay messages; Marco Polo estimated there were 10,000 postal stations in 13th-century China. Tap your foot to China’s official postal hymn (The Song of the Mail Swan Geese) and check out the collection of pre- and post-Liberation stamps (1888–1978) in a special climate-controlled room. On the 5th floor (after you exit) is a rooftop garden with panoramic views of the Shànghǎi skyline.
reviewed
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Shanghai Art Museum
Venue of the Shanghai Biennale, this museum is located within the former British racecourse club building next to People’s Park. Refreshingly cool in summer, the interior galleries are suited to appreciating art, displayed in well-illuminated alcoves and a voluminous sense of space. It’s also worth noting the ceiling details and other period features, including the horse-head design on the balustrades and the art deco chandeliers, original to the 1933 building. Unfortunately, the quality of the exhibitions is inconsistent. English captions are sporadic at best.
reviewed
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Martyrs Memorial
Next to the Longhua Temple, this park marks the site of an old Kuomintang prison, where 800 communists, intellectuals and political agitators were executed between 1928 and 1937. You can take a modern underground tunnel to the original jailhouses and the small execution ground. Scattered throughout the manicured lawns are epic sculptures of workers and soldiers, depicted in true socialist realism art style. During WWII this area was a Japanese internment camp and airfield, as depicted in the JG Ballard novel and Spielberg film Empire of the Sun.
reviewed
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Shanghai Museum of Public Security
It may sound turgid and dull, but this museum has some gems among the inevitable displays on traffic control and post-Liberation security milestones. The gold pistols of Sun Yatsen and 1930s gangster Huang Jinrong are worth hunting down amid the fine collection of Al Capone-style machine- and pen-guns, and look out for the collection of hand-painted business cards once dispensed by the city’s top jìnǔ (prostitutes).
reviewed
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Liuligongfang Museum
The iridescent glass creations of Liuligongfang have emerged as highly prized mantelpiece ornaments for the well-to-do Chinese middle classes. The museum air-con is set to super chill mode, but it's thankfully offset by the warming hues of some splendidly wrought pieces on view. The handy branch of Liuligongfang at Xīntiāndì across the way can help empty your wallet if you find yourself in gift-buying mode.
reviewed
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Lu Xun Memorial Hall
This modern museum presents the life and literature of Lu Xun, one of China’s best-loved authors. Peruse the first editions, photographs and clothes – including a fedora and a lambskin-lined coat. Lu Xun’s Shanghai home (and final residence from 1933 to 1936) is nearby at No 9, Lane 132, Shanyin Rd ( 山阴路 132 弄 9 号 ), an area of lovely lilong (alleyway) homes.
reviewed
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Shikumen Open House Museum
An invitingly arranged and restored two-storey shikumen (stone-gate house) within Xintiandi, decorated with period furniture and infused with the charms of yesteryear Shanghai. Peek into the minute, wedge-shaped tingzijian room on the landing, which used to be rented out to cash-strapped writers and other penurious tenants.
reviewed
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Site of the 1st National Congress of the Ccp
The communist narcissism and back-slapping might be irritating to some people, but this lovely shikumen house is immortalised as one of China’s holiest of political shrines, where the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was founded on 23 July 1921, with a youthful Mao Zedong in attendance.
reviewed
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P
Shanghai Museum of Folk Collectibles
Located at the northern edge of the World Expo site and housed in the magnificent Sanshan Guildhall (1909), this fascinating museum allows an exploration of Shanghai via the medium of collectibles, from cigarette lighters to ceramics and cruelly exquisite–looking miniature shoes for bound feet.
reviewed
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Q
League of Left-Wing Writers
The League of Left-Wing Writers was established down a side alley on 2 March 1930. Today the building serves as a political museum, perhaps worth a look for the architecture alone. Also wander down this alley for some lovely old architecture, pigeons in coops and further small alleyway openings.
reviewed
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R
Shanghai Museum of Arts & Crafts
Catch crafts emerging from the skilled fingers of on-site artisans, watch Chinese paper-cutting, embroidery and lacquer work and get your souvenir shopping sorted. The lovely building (built in 1905) and its gorgeous lawn are showpiece extras.
reviewed
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Bund Museum
The ‘museum’ runs to little more than a smattering of photos, but explore the building housing it, the Meteorological Signal Tower ( 外滩信号台 ), erected by industrious Jesuits.
reviewed
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Shanghai Duolun Museum of Modern Art
Looking like a 1960s university physics block, the Shanghai Duolun Museum of Modern Art has a focus on experimental contemporary art, with a good range of art books and an empty cafe on the 6th floor.
reviewed
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Cy Tung Maritime Museum
This small museum explores the little-known world of Chinese maritime history, with model ships, maps of early trade routes and exhibits on the legendary Chinese Muslim seafarer Zheng He and the maritime Silk Route.
reviewed
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Huangpu Park
China’s first ever public park (1868) achieved lasting notoriety for its apocryphal ‘No Dogs or Chinese allowed’ sign. The park today is blighted by the Monument to the People’s Heroes.
reviewed
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Madame Tussauds
The waxworks at Madame Tussauds are largely aimed at locals and cost a lot, but could make do when one of Shànghǎi’s notorious summer downpours inundates town.
reviewed
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Natural Wild Insect Kingdom
Aimed at kids, this collection of creepy-crawlies includes a chance to handle the hairy beasts. It’s one that could be missed unless your kids have a special interest.
reviewed
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Y
Zendai Museum of Modern Art
Fine museum with an emphasis on contemporary exhibitions in a modern art space.
reviewed
