Shanghai History Museum

Shanghai History Museum

The Shanghai History Museum is a patriotic education base.

The Shanghai History Museum is a comprehensive museum reflecting the local history of Shanghai. The establishment of a municipal historical museum in Shanghai began with the Shanghai History and Construction Museum in the 1950s. In 1983, the "Shanghai Historical Relics Exhibition Hall" was completed, and in July 1991, it was renamed to its current title.

In October 1994, the Shanghai History Museum reopened at 1286 Hongqiao Road, featuring the basic exhibition "The History of Urban Development in Modern Shanghai." The exhibition comprehensively showcased Shanghai’s urban landscape from its opening as a treaty port in 1843 to 1949, spanning over a hundred years. This exhibition was recognized by the National Cultural Heritage Administration as one of the first “Top Ten Exhibition Masterpieces” in China’s cultural and museum system. It closed in March 1999 due to the expiration of its lease. In May 2001, the "Shanghai Urban History Development Exhibition Hall," established by the Shanghai History Museum, opened to the public in the podium of the Oriental Pearl Radio & Television Tower. The exhibition hall is divided into five sections: "Huating Origins," "Old Town Scenes," "Port Opening Snapshots," "The International Settlement," and "Old Traces of Shanghai," using vivid and lifelike displays to reflect Shanghai's development into China’s largest industrial and commercial metropolis, highlighting the evolution of modern Shanghai in politics, economy, culture, society, and daily life.

In January 2003, the Shanghai History Museum was designated as a “Shanghai Patriotic Education Base” by the Shanghai Municipal People’s Government. In recent years, the museum has hosted numerous temporary and traveling exhibitions, such as “Sun Yat-sen and Shanghai – Exhibition of Cultural Relics, Documents, and Archives,” “Modern Metropolis – Shanghai and Hong Kong Social Scenes,” and “East Meets West – European Ceramics Exhibition,” all of which received excellent social responses and benefits. While promoting various exhibitions to the public, the Shanghai History Museum also organized multiple public welfare lecture series titled “Experts Talk About Shanghai,” disseminating knowledge about Shanghai’s local history and museums, achieving positive social outcomes.

The Shanghai History Museum houses a collection of approximately 110,000 items, categorized into fifteen major types: paintings and calligraphy, metals, ceramics, crafts, badges, documents, printing materials, textiles, stone carvings, coins, photographs, paper-cuttings, stamps, records, and other miscellaneous items.

The Shanghai History Museum has long been committed to academic research and investigation in areas such as Shanghai’s local cultural relics and history, folk customs, humanistic environments, urban changes, and museology, publishing a large number of works. Since 2002, it has published the Shanghai History Museum Journal. In 2007, the Shanghai History Museum became the leading committee unit of the Urban Museum Committee under the Chinese Museums Association. As a key member of the ICOM International Committee for Collecting and Exhibiting Cities (ICOM-CAMOC), the museum actively collaborates with urban museums both domestically and internationally, contributing to the advancement of urban museums.

Address: No. 193, Hankou Road, Huangpu District, Shanghai, China

Postal Code: 200002

Phone: 63232208

Fax: 63235303

Website: http://www.shmuseum.org

Visiting Address: Ground Floor, Oriental Pearl Radio & Television Tower, No. 1 Century Avenue, Pudong New Area

Postal Code: 200120

Phone: 58791888

Fax: 58796660

Opening Hours: 8:00–21:30

Public Transport: Buses 81, 774, Cai-Lu Special Line, 993, Lujiazui Loop, Lujiazui Tourism Loop, Metro Line 2 to Lujiazui Station

Further Reading:

· National Second-Class Museum of China