Shanghai Museum

Written by Matteo Updated Mar. 17, 2025

Shanghai Museum lies on the south side of People’s Square, which is in the very center of Shanghai City. It enjoys a great reputation as one of the four most important museums in China, alongside the Palace Museum (Forbidden City) in Beijing, Nanjing Museum, and Shaanxi History Museum in Xi'an. The museum is mainly famous for its valuable bronzeware, ceramics, paintings, and calligraphy.

History

The museum was first established in 1952 at 325 Nanjing West Road. In October 1959 the museum was moved to 16 Henan South Road, and at that time the local government decided to build a new building for Shanghai Museum in People’s Square. This newest home for Shanghai's artifacts was constructed in August 1993 and opened to the public on October 12, 1996.

Displays and Access

Shanghai Museum covers an area of 39,200 square meters with a height of 29.5 meters. The whole exterior design conveys the ancient Chineses theme tian yuan di fang ('round sky and square land') with a square base and a round roof. The museum inside has 11 galleries and three exhibition halls, showing the essence of ancient Chinese art.

On the first floor are the Gallery of Chinese Ancient Bronze, the Gallery of Chinese Ancient Sculpture, and a special exhibition hall. On the second floor are the Gallery of Chinese Ancient Ceramics, the Zandelou Gallery of Ceramics, and a special exhibition hall. The Gallery of Chinese Paintings, the Gallery of Chinese Calligraphy, and the Gallery of Chinese Seals are on the third floor. The fourth floor is the home to the Gallery of Chinese Ancient Jade, the Gallery of Chinese Ancient Coins, the Chinese Ming and Qing Furniture Gallery, the Chinese Minority Nationalities’ Art Gallery, and a special exhibition hall.

Audio guiding devices with eight languages are for rent on the first floor. Visitors can rent one and follow the simple instructions to get themselves an audio explanation while looking at the exhibits. Special elevators and hallways provide access for disabled people.

Highlights

If you have only two or so hours to visit the museum, we recommend you appreciate the Gallery of Chinese Ancient Calligraphy, in which most exhibits are from the Ming (1368–1644) and Qing (1644–1911) dynasties. You may see the only authentic painting, named Gaoyi Tu, left by Sunwei, who was a very famous painter in the late Tang Dynasty (618–907). It was once stored in the Palace Museum.

The famous Emperor Song Huizong of the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127) was a bad, corrupt, and incapable emperor, but a genius at painting, whose works are still very valuable now. In the Gallery of Chinese Ancient Calligraphy, you can see his authentic work: Liu Ya Lu Yan Tu.

The elegant and beautiful bronzeware is also recommended. Bronze articles of the Shang Dynasty (1600-1046 BC) and the Zhou Dynasty (1046-256 BC) are gems of Chinese ancient art. While you may see some of them in big museums in the USA, England, Germany, France, and Japan, you can only see the essence of Chinese bronzeware in this museum, especially since there are some artifacts from the early Western Zhou (1046-771 BC) and early Qin (221–206 BC) dynasties rescued in Hong Kong by the curator Chengyuan Ma.

Other galleries are also interesting, like the Gallery of Chinese Ancient Coins. You can see how the coin changed from its beginnings as a stone or a shell to the current paper banknote over 3,000 years.

Special Exhibitions

There are special exhibitions with different themes held irregularly in the three special exhibition halls. You may see some valuable pieces of art which are rarely seen normally.

Tips

Beware tea house hawkers: at the north gate of Shanghai Museum some people are wandering around who pretend to be friendly with foreigners. When they start chatting, they will invite foreign travelers to have tea in certain tea houses, which in China are called 'black tea houses'. They will charge the customers at least CNY400/person for drinking the tea and skillfully guide the customer to buy very expensive tea leaves. So stay alert.

Travel Information

Create My Trip