Shanghai Museum: Shanghai at its best
China has always been for its museums, probably because of its traditions, culture, and history. All major cities in China offer a variety of distinctly unique sets of museum. Shanghai, being the center of business, travel, and technology, has several museums to boast. Shanghai's famous museums vary in themes - from art to business to technology to history to culture and more. Some of the interesting Shanghai museums are Shanghai Art Museum, Shanghai Bank Museum, Shanghai Municipal History Museum, Shanghai Natural History Museum, Shanghai Public Security Museum, Shanghai Science and Technology Museum, and the most popular Shanghai Museum.
Shanghai Museum or Shanghai Bowugan, which is considered as the best and highest ranked in Shanghai's tourist sites, is certainly a fascinating place to visit, enjoy, and learn. Shanghai Museum is even cited by many as the best museum in China. It has eleven galleries and three unique exhibition halls located on different floors, encircling a wide cylindrical atrium. The exhibits are well designed and well lit that visitors will surely be amazed. Though it is big, its 120,000 artifacts cannot match those of the collections in Beijing, Taipei, and Xi'an, but this set of artifacts is still enough to fill the galleries of Shanghai Museum and is equally outstanding.
Shanghai Museum is located in a cultural and historic area as well, with a main entrance on the north side of the building facing the three monumental structures occupied by the Grand Theater, City Hall, and Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Center. What makes this different from China's other museum is that its artifacts are arranged by themes than by dynasty. There's a large gift shop that sells museum memorabilia as well.
Touring the Shanghai Museum is always a delight for tourists. The first floor has the Ancient Chinese Bronze Gallery with a gorgeous collection of over 400 bronzes from the 18th to 3rd centuries B.C. The Ancient Chinese Sculpture Gallery contains sculptures of the 475 B.C. to 1644 A.D. Welcoming visitors of the second floor is the Ceramics Gallery that has many tricolor figurines from Tang Dynasty and delicately painted and fired pots from Ming Dynasty. On the third floor is the Painting Gallery housing the ancient original art work on silk scrolls - landscapes from Ming Dynasty, Buddhist scrolls from Tang and Song Dynasties, and the ink brush scroll of Emperor Zhao Ji. In the Calligraphy Gallery, various styles of artistic handwriting are shown - with specimens from Tang Dynasty. The Seal Gallery has intricately carved chops in stone being displayed. On the fourth floor is the Jade Gallery; it shelters the carved jade wine vessels, jewelry, and ornaments from the Liangzhu Culture. The Coin Gallery contains the coins from the First Emperor's reign. The Ming and Qing Furniture Gallery has the carved screens with jade from Qing Dynasty, six-poster canopy bed, and an intricate folding wooden armchair from Ming Dynasty. The Minority Nationalities' Art Gallery displays attractive attires, jewelry, dioramas, and ceremonial creations from non-Han Chinese era to the early 20th century.
