Shanghai Museum – One of the Four Greatest Museums in China

Brief Introduction about Shanghai Museum

Shanghai Museum, set up in 1952, is reputed as the "Half of Cultural Relics Field" for its millions of precious cultural relics. Visitors can treat your eyes with its large number of collections of historic Chinese artistic relics, from bronze, ceramics, painting, and calligraphic works, to jades, coins, furniture, seals, sculpture, etc. Shanghai Museum is designed into a special appearance of the traditional Chinese “Ding” cooking vessel of 29.5m high, which symbolizes the concept of “a round heaven and a square earth” and gives visitors the strong visual effect of historic feeling. Therefore, this museum of a unique style of both tradition and modern has been occupying the fancy of Chinese people and visitors to Shanghai, China to have a good knowledge of the brilliant history and splendid culture of China.

The newly-built Shanghai Museum East opened in February, 2024 with Bronze Gallery and Sculpture Gallery opening to public now, and some other galleries will also be moved from Shanghai Museum to Shanghai Museum East.

Display in Shanghai Museum

The whole Shanghai Museum sets up more than 11 galleries to exhibit the rare treasures and show the exhibitions from countries and regions all over the world. Visitors can stroll along each gallery to slowly taste the beauty and connotation of every piece of treasurable artistic work.

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1. Bronze (Shanghai Museum East)

2. Ceramics

3. Jade

4. Sculpture (Shanghai Museum East)

5. Seal

Shanghai Museum shows you a big gift in this gallery since this is the first exhibition of Chinese seals or chops. So you can appreciate more than 500 seals of various materials selected from all those from the West Zhou to the late Qing dynasties, which is a hard-won chance to know the skills of making seals and the diverse history in each period.

Seal with Inscription Jin Gui Yi Di Wang - (265 AD—316 AD)

This more than 1,650 years old seal made of gold is the rare masterpiece of minority chops in the Jin dynasty (晋代). The upper part of this chop is a prone camel carved in vivid appearance. And on the surface of the chop, five characters are in a regular arrangement and sharp carvings. During the Qin (秦) and Han (汉) dynasties, chops were gifted to those tribal chiefs who had good relationships with the Central Plain (中原), differing from gold, silver, and copper-based on their official titles, to show the diverse level. And this gold seal of exquisite skills shows the complicated and frequently changed relationships between nationalities at that period.

Moreover, the Seal with Inscription Wu Yi that is specialized in the seal character transformed from the images of birds and fishes and other great masterpieces of seals in the Shanghai Museum is exhibiting here for you to know more about their origin and history.

6. Paintings

Step into this gallery, you can completely free yourself in an ancient and graceful garden of traditional Chinese paintings. More than 120 pieces of outstanding painting works of famous artists from the Tang dynasty to the modern times are exhibiting here in the Shanghai Museum, which gives you the terrific experience of the unique historic art of paintings in China.

Hermits, Hand Scroll - (705 AD - 907 AD)

Also called Gaoyi Tu (高逸图), this silk painting in Tang dynasty is the only authentic work of Sun Wei (孙位) remaining in the world. Mr. Sun applied rich color and various lines to shape the whole painting, with great effort and multiple techniques. Four sages sitting on the carpet, separated by stones, trees, and servants, and since Mr. Sun put emphasis on the expression of the figures' eyes, every sage is particularly vivid with their own characteristic, and as a result, this painting appears still glorious and bright and is the gem in the field of paintings and the treasure of Shanghai Museum.

Besides, a great number of excellent paintings are exhibiting in Shanghai Museum, so you can enjoy the artistic works the most, like the painting of bamboos of Zheng Banqiao (郑板桥), various vivid figure paintings, fancy paintings of birds and flowers in different styles, etc.

7. Calligraphy

Chinese calligraphy has always been a proud art since ancient times. Shanghai Museum has collected the typical excellent works from thousands of years ago to the Qing dynasty to allow visitors a chance to appreciate the brilliant writing of all styles.

Ya Tou Wan Tie, Letter - (317 AD - 420 AD)

Ya Tou Wan Tie (鸭头丸帖), a famous cursive script work of Wang Xianzhi (张献之), is one of the most treasurable relics of Shanghai Museum. This work talks about a pill reducing edema in less than 20 characters. All the characters are in bold writing and graceful charm. The technique of using ink is perfect, with the plentiful changes from dark to light, from heavy to thin. With every character dotted appropriately, this calligraphic work looks charming, easy, free, and informal, however, principles show everywhere.

The Red Cliff Ode (Chi Bi Fu) - (1502 AD)

This Front and Back Parts of the Red Cliff Ode (赤壁赋) exhibiting in Shanghai Museum is written by the famous Zhu Yunming (祝允明), who is more well-known for his another name of Zhu Zhishan (祝枝山). The whole ode was composed by the great writer Su Shi (苏轼) to express his generous mind in a difficult situation in the description of beautiful natural scenery. Mr. Zhu achieved his peak of excessive free cursive style in his elder age, so this work totally expresses his wild personality.

Moreover, you can admire many other good calligraphic works in Shanghai Museum, from the regular, running, official scripts, to seal character, etc.

8. Other Shining Exhibits

Besides the above-mentioned precious highlights, Shanghai Museum has collected a great deal of other valuable treasures on the fourth floor.

China as one of the earliest country using currency gives Shanghai Museum the best chance to show the nearly 7,000 historic relics of currency to visitors, which is a “theater” of the max screen to play the origin, rise, development, exchange, etc. of currency in China. Visitors can see the ancient currency from the Bronze era to the Modern Time of all types and the special mold cases for making currency.

Diverse furniture in Ming and Qing dynasties is placed here, from the well-known Official’s Hat Armchair with Four Protruding Ends with high aesthetic value, to the other over 100 pieces of fancy appearance, from screens, curio boxes, to chairs, tables, etc. Visitors can enjoy the elegant and fine interest in the traditional garden styles.

Moreover, Shanghai Museum is rich in the featured relics of minority nationalities in China, such as the various types of costumes of each minority, embroideries, sculptures, masks, etc., which will glad your eyes while you are wandering along with this gallery.

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Opening Information of Shanghai Museum

Opening Hour: 9:00-17:00 every day; no entering after 16:00, closed on Monday (except national holidays)

Service in Shanghai Museum

Audio guide

Language: Chinese, English, French, Japanese, German, Korean, Spanish, Italian, etc.

Audio tour in Chinese: RMB 20/adult (with a deposit of RMB 300); RMB 10/child (with a deposit of RMB 300)

Audio tour in other languages: RMB 40/set (with a deposit of RMB 400 or USD 50 or the passport)

Cloak-room

Clothes and large luggage can be put in the cloak-room, and valuables except computers are suggested be carried with you;

Wheelchairs & baby carriages

These are provided for free with the valid documentation and a deposit of RMB 300 or with only a deposit of RMB 600.

Barrier-free facilities, parking lot, restaurants, tea house, guest center, etc. are available here.

Note: The above fees are for your reference only, please contact our Travel Consultant for the updated and detail information.

Location of Shanghai Museum & How to Get There

Useful Tips to Go to Shanghai Museum

1. You can take pictures in most galleries, but do not use flashes in order to protect the relics, and look out while photographing;

2. Security Checking Process is very strict, which takes a little longer timer than that in many other museums, so there is usually a queue to enter the museum, but people move fast. Passport is required for the entry, and needed if you want to deposit stuffs in the cloakroom.

3. No painting or writing tools is allowed to be brought into the museum except for pencils.

4. Bringing camera tripod or huge/medium sized professional DV devices is not allowed.

5. Shops for selling the imitations of these artistic relics, books, related ornaments are set, with one at the 1st floor of Shanghai Museum, one at Pudong International Airport, one at the Oriental Pearl Tower, and one on Taicang Road.

6. The Shanghai Museum reserves the rights to charge on some special temporary exhibitions.

7. Please note that some of the exhibition halls may be temporarily closed due to maintenance or upgrades.

How to Plan a Shanghai Tour

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