As a museum of ancient Chinese art, Shanghai Museum possesses a collection of over 1000,000 objects, about 120,000 of which are precious national-graded works of art. Its rich and high-quality collection of ancient Chinese bronze, ceramics, painting and calligraphy is specially celebrated in the world.
Founded and first open to the public in the building previously of the horseracing club at 325 W. Nanjing Road in 1952 and then moved into the former Zhonghui Building at 16 S. Henan Road in 1959, the museum developed very quickly in aspects of acquisition, conservation, research, exhibition, education and cultural exchanges with other institutes. In 1992, the Shanghai municipal government allocated to the Museum a piece of land at the very center of the city, the People's Square, as its new site. The whole construction took three years, from August 1993 to its inauguration on October 12th, 1996. The 29.5 meters high new building has a construction space of 39,200 square meters. Its unique architectural form of a round top with a square base, symbolizing the ancient Chinese philosophy that the square earth is under the round sky, is a distinguished architectural combination of traditional feature and modern spirit. The present Shanghai Museum has eleven galleries and three special temporary exhibition halls. It extends warm welcome to the visitors from all over the world.
Admission
The Shanghai Museum is open free all year round except for special notification.
ID cards or certificates may be required in certain circumstances.
Visitors over (and of) 70, the handicapped and Shanghai Museum Friends (with Membership Card presented) will be granted priority entry.
Group visitors can make reservation at (Tel: 86-21-63723500*132) by 2 weeks in advance (within limited numbers) and will be granted priority entry on the visiting day.
Hours
The Museum is open daily 09:00–17:00 all year round.
8000 visitors accepted per day. No entry after 16:00 or up to the limits as given.
Address
No 201, Ren Min Da Dao
Huangpu District
Shanghai 200003, P.R.CHINA
Tel.: 86-21-63723500*132, or Hotline: 86-21-96968686