Shanghai Museum is situated at the southern side of the People’s Square. Total construction space is 38,000 square meters. The museum structure, 29.5 meters in height, includes five floors aboveground and two floors underground. Total investment of the museum is 432.69 million yuan. The museum opened to visitors at the end of 1995.
The design of the museum, a square foundation supporting a circular roof, incorporates ancient Chinese philosophy that the sky is round and the earth is square. The museum has 10 showrooms featuring bronze wares, ceramics, ancient Chinese paintings, calligraphy works, sculptures, seals, coins, jade wares, furniture and handicrafts of Chinese minorities. The museum now collects some 120,000 pieces of precious antiques, accounting for almost half of the total such collections in the country. The museum is highly acclaimed internationally.
Gallery of Ancient Chinese Bronze
Gallery of Ancient Chinese Bronze shows about 440 pieces of various kinds of ancient Chinese bronzes, including the bronze wine vessel, food vessel, musical instrument, water vessel, weapon and some other vessels from the Xia Dynasty (ca, 21st century B.C.)to the Warring States Period (221 B.C.) The distinctively shaped and beautifully decorated bronzes, some with historic inscriptions, is an important mark of ancient Chinese civilization and a marvelous treasure of the Chinese cultural heritage respected highly in the world.
Gallery of Ancient Chinese Jades
Gallery of Ancient Chinese Jades displays over 400 pieces of various jade wares and treasure.
There are jade wares and treasure used on ceremonious occasions at Hongshan Culture and Liangzhu Culture during the Neolithic Age. The heyday of Chinese jade ware is Shang Dynasty. Jade ware made in Zhou Ages is the most elegant, its style had been modeled after till Han Dynasty. After Donghan Ages, the technique of jade ware making went downhill. In Tang and Song Dynasty, jades were more used in daily life, which is believed to be well accepted among the users.