RadioRoryDoesn’t the Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Center sound like fun!?!?!
Well it is!
The museum traces the city’s history and shows, in dramatic style, how it plans to keep on growing. The 3-D model of the city takes up an entire floor and the lighting keeps changing to make the display more interesting.
There are better history museums and you could probably find a place with more artifacts, but the center does give you an appreciation for how things have changed so quickly. Appreciating change may be the best way to appreciate Shanghai.
One way to understand China and its Cultural Revolution is to get to the Shanghai Propaganda Poster Art Centre. Located in the basement of an apartment building, the small museum has the feel of an old-fashioned record store. The brightly-colored posters promote Chairman Mao and Chinese supremacy. Some posters are very funny (unintentionally) and others celebrate achievement in technology and sports. Before TV and the internet, these images were an important way for the government to communicate with people. Photos aren’t allowed inside the museum, but click the link to the art center’s web page and take a look. Most of the posters were destroyed after Mao so the ones that are left are rare.
One last museum recommendation is the Shanghai Municipal History Museum.
It’s like a moderately-educational Madame Tussauds. There are lots of very good wax figures in the dioramas (and some stinkos too). The museum is located beneath the huge Oriental Pearl Tower and it’s a great way to see the old and new on display. Kid-friendly, but if you want a more in-depth look at the city’s history, you might want to hit a library. The museum covers most of the Shanghai’s history through the middle of the 20th Century and it’s an easy walk-thru attraction. Just be ready for crowds. The museum and the Tower are big attractions for tourists.