Aurora Art Museum — Attraction in Shanghai

I've been to a ton of museums in Asia, especially numerous in China. For me, the quality of a museum is based on its layout and explanations as opposed to the quantity of pieces or building size. The nearby Shanghai museum is larger and has more pieces but you'll get a better understanding of history and context from this Aurora museum.

The Shanghai museum has a ton of pieces on display but looking at your 15th jade disk tells you less than looking at 2 jade disks at the Aurora museum. This is because the Aurora museum tells you how jade figures came to be in chronological order and explains the evolution of the designs throughout time. This concept applies to porcelain as well. They'll also go into a ton of detail into the making of the these artifacts, which adds another level of appreciation to viewing them. Ultimately it boils down to this: If you're a more visual person who prefers to view artifacts based on their immediate visual beauty, I suggest you go to the Shanghai museum but if you're interested in how these things were made, what they were used for and how they evolved in construction and design over time, come to the Aurora museum.

Additional notes: I got the audio tour in English and a thorough visit, looking at every exhibit took me around 4 hours. You can skim it and be done in 1 hour though. They also have volunteer guides which is nice. You have to pay admission which means there are a lot less people and you get generally more...

As a museum professional visiting Shanghai, I highly recommend this museum for a peaceful "highlights" museum day. As others have said, it's a small but well-curated collection with a different theme on each floor - Buddhist sculpture, antique jade, blue and white porcelain, etc. I used the audio guide for specific pieces I was interested in (extra 20yuan) but most wall text is translated into English. It took me about two hours to move fairly slowly through everything, but you could certainly spend more or less time. The museum is linked with the Peking University's School of Archaeology and Museology and there are a couple of "research rooms" that go more in-depth; I particularly liked these. Gorgeous views (and good coffee) from the cafe on...

For 60 yuan you get to see an amazing and impressive collection of ceramic pots, vases and plates (from the Ming, Qing and Yuan dinasties), jade artifacts and ancient statues. The view from the 5th and 6th floor is quite amazing. The building itself is a piece of art, thanks to the vision of the brilliant japanese architect Tadao Ando. The store next to the entrance is quite amazing too, but everything is...