Shanghai Museum East

Shanghai Museum East (上海博物馆东馆, Shànghǎi Bówùguǎn Dōngguǎn) at 1952 Century Avenue is the Pudong wing of the Shanghai Museum. It is the larger of the two venues and, according to Chinese Wikipedia, now holds most of the specialist galleries of ancient Chinese art. The official site gives hours of 10:00 to 18:00, with last entry at 17:00, and closure on Tuesdays except national holidays. That is a different closing day from the People’s Square venue, which closes on Mondays. The site says permanent exhibitions need no reservation.

Work began in September 2017, in Pudong’s Lujiazui area. The wing then opened in stages. The Pudong government’s English site announced the ancient bronze gallery as the first phase, for 2 February 2024, and English Wikipedia says the museum fully opened on 3 December 2024.

The building is a large cuboid. China Daily’s 2017 report gave it a height of 45 metres, six floors above ground and two below, and a rippling marble surface meant to suggest the place where sea meets land. Floor area appears in two forms: 105,000 square metres in the 2017 report, and 113,200 in Chinese Wikipedia, which also says Tongji University designers and a team designed it and that it is about three times the size of the People’s Square building. The figures may reflect different stages of the plan. Across the street are the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum and the Oriental Art Center.

The plan, as the 2017 report described it, was a museum of classical Chinese art covering calligraphy, painting and handicrafts, with parts of the storage and restoration areas open to visitors, complementing the People’s Square museum’s emphasis on bronzes and ceramics. Chinese Wikipedia lists twelve specialist galleries, including bronze, sculpture, ceramics, calligraphy, painting, seals, jade and coins. The Zhao Puchu Calligraphy Art Gallery (赵朴初书法艺术馆) was completed on 11 November 2024, and a Jiangnan crafts gallery is on the fourth floor. No source fetched here names an individual architect, so this page does not name one.

Show the Chinese address on this page to a taxi driver. If you plan the day around one object, check the official site first, since the two venues divide the collection.