As a museum of ancient Chinese art, Shanghai Museum (shàng hǎi bó wù guǎn 上海博物馆) possesses a collection of 120,000 precious works of art. Its rich and high-quality collection of ancient Chinese bronze, ceramics, painting and calligraphy is specially celebrated in the world. Located in the center of Shanghai in People's Square, Shanghai Museum is a large museum of ancient Chinese art. The museum style and presentation surround visitors with artifacts demonstrating ancient wisdom and philosophy. The exterior design of the round dome and the square base symbolizes the ancient idea of a round heaven and a square land.

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 Henan Road (hé nán lù 河南路) 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 (shì zhèng fǔ 市政府) 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.

The museum is divided into eleven galleries and three exhibition halls. The eleven Galleries cover most of the major categories of Chinese art: Ancient Bronze, Ancient Ceramics, Paintings, Calligraphy, Ancient Sculpture, Ancient Jade, Coins, Ming and Qing Furniture, Seals, and Minority Nationalities.

Ancient Ceramics Collection
The ancient ceramics collection is a special Shanghai Museum treasure. Among the more than 500 pieces are artwork from various dynasties, such as painted and gray pottery from the Neolithic age, primitive celadon from the Shang, Zhou and Warring States, mature celadon from the East Han Dynasty, the well known tri-colored glazed pottery from the Tang Dynasty, blue, white and black glazed as well as painted porcelain from the Song, Jin and Liao, and the brilliant works from Jingdezhen, Jiangxi, the center of the industry during the Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties.

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Public Transportation: You can take bus No.574, 112, 123, 71, 934, 145, 46 and get off at People's Square.
Opening Hours: 9:00-17:00
Address:center of Shanghai in People's Square No.201
Tel: 021-63723500
Admission Fee: Free

Tags: Travel in Shanghai   Travel in Beijing