Shanghai Museum (Shanghai Bowuguan), Shanghai

This is a great museum to visit if you are touring Shanghai for a few days. It is free to all And located in the beautiful People’s Park. Not a world class museum but it does showcase a nice cross-section of China’s history. I would recommend going to the urban planning museum first if you are pressed for time in Shanghai as it provides an incredible overview of the city past present and future and provides information on each of the historical neighborhoods you can go tour.

This place is like the MET of Shanghai. So much to see, so perfectly curated, with wonderful free mini guided tours, I can't believe this museum is free to the public. Highly recommend for anyone visiting Shanghai. It's not a large museum, but I spent a good 4 hours in there, and I enjoyed every minute of it. Extra bonus - the bathrooms are clean and have real toilets!

The museum was very large, spanning four floors. There are many things to look at including artwork, jewelry, currency, furniture and clothing. The clothing exhibit was closed when i was there. Although the history was fascinating, there were very few things was interested in looking at. If you are interested in the culture of Shanghai you might find it more interesting than i did.

Not what I would expect from a museum. Very small compared to other cities in the world. Displays are only beautiful collections Eg. jade, carving, clothing, furniture, crockery. Etc. Nothing of the people of the past, how they lived, or animals,housing, transport, plants. Seemed like it’s all about, this is what we want you to know of our past, not what really happened.

A neat experience. There was no entrance fee, but you will have to wait in line to go through security before you can get in. Fortunately, the line moved steadily and fairly fast. There is lots to see inside the museum. We spent a little over an hour just looking at the ceramics because the gallery is extensive and has lots of different kinds of pots, statues, etc. We went through the rest rather quickly: calligraphy, coins, clothing, furniture, paintings, bronze, and Jade. Overall, we spent about 2.5 hours here. The ceramics gallery was my favorite. There's a little gift shop to check out too. And I was impressed with their clean bathrooms (Western toilets here -- not squatters!). The sinks have soap and hot water.