Shanghai Museum

Shanghai Museum,One of China's fourth largest museums, and always regarded as one of best museum in the world. situated on the People's Square in the Huangpu District of Shanghai. The occupation of the Museum is 28,000 square meters. It is a comprehensive of art with a collection of valuable cultural relics numbering over 120,000 pieces. The valuable cultural relics on display include store sculptures, bronze-ware, porcelain, calligraphic works & Chinese paintings, jade-ware, coins, seals and ancient furniture etc.

The museum is divided into eleven galleries and three exhibition halls. The eleven Galleries cover most of the major categories of Chinese art: Ancient Bronze, Ancient Ceramics, Paintings, Calligraphy, Ancient Sculpture, Ancient Jade, Coins, Ming and Qing Furniture, Seals, and Minority Nationalities.

The bronze ware of the Shang and Zhou(1600 BC- 256 BC) dynasties contribute to our understanding of ancient civilization. The over 400 pieces of exquisite bronze wares cover the history of ancient Chinese bronze art.

Collections in Shangahi Museum
The ancient ceramics collection is a special Shanghai Museum treasure. Among the more than 500 pieces are artwork from various dynasties, such as painted and gray pottery from the Neolithic age(4500 BC- 3750 BC), primitive celadon from the Shang, Zhou and Warring States(1600 BC-221 BC), mature celadon from the East Han Dynasty(25 AD -220 AD), the well known tri-colored glazed pottery from the Tang Dynasty(618 AD -907 AD), blue, white and black glazed as well as painted porcelain from the Song(960 AD-1279 AD), Jin and Liao Dynasty(907 AD-1125 AD), and the brilliant works from Jingdezhen, Jiangxi Province, the center of the industry during the Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties(1279 AD-1977 AD), etc..    

Chinese culture is a result of the melding and collaboration of many nationalities. During its long history, minority nationalities have created their own colorful cultures. From clothes to textiles, metal wares, sculptures, pottery, lacquer and bamboo wares, the exotic styles of their artwork give us a general picture of creativity and passion toward life of those ethnic groups.

The Shanghai Museum also do scientific research which has made great achievements. Important research cover the pottery, the application of bromine methane in protecting cultural relics and so on. The museum also compiled such picture books about the cultural relics.