Museums & Galleries

The big ones are free, and that is the catch

The Shanghai Museum, the China Art Museum and the Power Station of Art all cost nothing. So does the site of the First National Congress, and so do a number of smaller municipal museums.

⚠️ But free is not the same as walk-in. Most now require an advance reservation and your passport, booked through the venue's own channel — in practice inside a Chinese payment app. Popular days sell out, and turning up hopefully is the commonest wasted morning in Shanghai.

Where to start

Shanghai Museum on People's Square, for bronzes and ceramics — the bronze gallery would be the headline collection of any museum on earth. ⚠️ There is now a second, larger building in Pudong, Shanghai Museum East; they are separate visits with separate reservations.

China Art Museum, in the red inverted pyramid left from the 2010 Expo, for twentieth-century Chinese painting — and for the animated Along the River During the Qingming Festival, which is worth the trip by itself.

Power Station of Art, in a converted coal plant, for contemporary work. ⚠️ Check what is actually installed; the programme has gaps between exhibitions.

The one that is not about art

⭐ The Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Centre on People's Square holds a room-sized scale model of the entire city. Go on your first day rather than your last — an hour there makes the rest of the week legible.

Closing days

⚠️ Most Chinese museums close one day a week, commonly Monday. Check before crossing the city, and check again around Chinese New Year and the October National Day holiday, when opening patterns change and the whole country is travelling.