Shanghai Museum

Located in the south of the People's Square, the Shanghai Museum sits quietly, steeped in the profundity and dignity of history. Shanghai Museum looks like a Chinese ancient bronze ware, with a 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. It can be pretty hard to see without a fruitful imagination. In reality it resembles something like a flat pan with ears. Museum construction began in 1993 and was completed within three years.

The 29.5-metre-high building has 2 basements, 5 floors. Its four topping arches craft carved to memorize an evolution of characters and history. According to the displayed contents, there are 6 exhibition areas and 12 galleries, including gallery of Chinese ancient bronze ware, gallery of Chinese ancient ceramics, gallery of Chinese paintings, gallery of Chinese calligraphy, gallery of Chinese ancient sculpture, gallery of Chinese coins, gallery of Chinese ancient jade, Chinese Ming and Qing furniture gallery, gallery of Chinese seals, Chinese minorities' art gallery, gallery of china donated by Hu Huichun and gallery of western art. Ancient Chinese bronze ware, sculpture, and the large exhibition hall can be found on the first floor. The second floor houses ancient ceramics and the Zandelou ceramic wing and exhibition hall. Historical calligraphy, paintings, and Chinese seals are found on floor three, while ancient jade, coins, Ming and Qing Dynasty furniture, and the minority crafts exhibit and exhibition hall are located on the fourth floor. Displaying over 120,000 antiques and 200,000 professional books in Chinese and foreign languages, Shanghai Museum is known as "one half sky of antiques in China" and enjoys prestige abroad.

The bronze collections are made up of pieces from collectors in Southern China, and artifacts discovered after the 1930's. Objects of particular interest are the famous Dakeding urn and a collection of Hunyuan ritual vessels including an extremely intricate sacrificial wine vessel. Ceramics collections primarily include rare works from southern China, prehistoric carved ceramics from the ancient Li-angzhu culture, and primitive celadon ware. Sparining Yuan, Ming and, Qing Dynasties, pottery from the famed Jingde Zhen Jiangxi pottery center has already been placed in its own independent collection. The painting and calligraphy collections also lay claim to a large number of priceless southern Chinese works. For coins, jade, and other antiques, the museum's new wing has a great preservation system.

To get the most out of your museum visit, it is essential that you take the museum's audio tour. Each showroom provides a small, lightweight, prerecorded listening device that explains the history and significance of the artifacts on display. All you have to do is punch in an artifact's identification number, and then you can listen to a detailed explanation. Listening devices are provided in English, Chinese, and a variety of other languages.

As a national cultural heritage under special protection and a state 4A tourist attraction, the Shanghai Museum roundly shows a 6000-year-long refulgent evolution of Chinese ancient arts.