Shanghai History Museum, History museum in Pudong district, Shanghai, China
The Shanghai History Museum is a history museum in the Huangpu district, housed in a neo-classical building from 1934 that once belonged to the Shanghai Race Club. The collection spans multiple floors and includes objects, models, and documents tracing the city's development from its early days to the modern era.
The museum was founded in 1984 and was first located elsewhere in the city before moving to the former Shanghai Race Club building. That move gave the collection a permanent home with more room for exhibitions.
The museum displays everyday objects, clothing, and crafts that show how ordinary people lived in Shanghai across different periods. Walking through the rooms gives a sense of how habits and ways of life shifted over the centuries.
The exhibition areas are clearly marked, and the building has elevators to reach all floors with ease. Since the collection is large, it is worth setting aside plenty of time to move through it without rushing.
Two large bronze lions displayed at the museum once stood guard outside the HSBC bank building on the Bund before being moved here. The museum also keeps original boundary markers from the former French Concession, which are rarely noticed but easy to spot once you know to look for them.
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