Shanghai Museum — Attraction in Shanghai

Absolutely terrible ticketing system. It's pretty clear people are just coming here for clout and prestige and that scalpers and group tour companies are swooping in and stealing all the tickets. There's virtually no English language information on how to even get a ticket and once I was able to get on the miniapp via WhatsApp there were several available tickets which were all taken by scalpers immediately while I was attempting to fill my information out for one of them. I doubt they're actually 8,000 people coming in here per the ticket limit and that scalpers in group tour companies are just basically hoarding the tickets for their own profit. Signs nearby at the facility mention this yet they still have this pathetic system. The good news is that there's another museum that actually has Chinese and Asian related artifacts and this is only the special exhibit museum which leads me to believe that people are just coming here for cloud and prestige Rather than caring about the actual exhibitions so they can tick it off their tour itinerary. just a really bad experience because my hotel is down the street from this place and yet after multiple days of trying I couldn't even get in it's booked completely for over a week in advance which is not the case for many landmarks across China which leads me to believe that it's being exploited. Since there's no English language information on how to acquire tickets I posted the actual WeChat program on the attached photo. My advice is to get tickets as soon as a day opens.

To add to this, I was I was walking to people's square writing this review when I check the ticketing system again for the exact day when 19 tickets dropped for the exact time slot of the current time which is absolute proof that the system is being...

As of April 2025, the main exhibition is "The Civilization of Ancient Egyptian" special exhibition, with many permanent exhibitions relocated to the Pudong branch ("Shanghai Museum East Campus" on Google Maps), leaving only three permanent exhibition halls at the People's Square branch.

That's why I spent most of time here on Egyptian exhibitions, the artifacts on display are very well curated with tools, sculptures, tablets, four thousand years old bread, and many historical pieces on display, visualizing the ancient civilization on many aspects.

Notes that the names of the exhibits are available in Chinese, English, Japanese, and Korean, but the full description or extended explanation is in Chinese, so make sure your translator app is ready.

I spent about an hour at the permanent exhibitions, the displays of Chinese furniture and Chinese minorities' arts and crafts were interesting, but not on the scale that I expected to see here.

The permanent exhibition is free, but I couldn't find a way to book the ticket or tell the staff that I just wanted to walk-in. I ended up booking the special exhibition for 148 CNY/person through the "上海博物馆参观预约" WeChat miniapp, just show on your phone that you booked and they will let you in the front entrance, the actual ticket validation is at the entrance of each special exhibition hall using your passport number.

Even though I did not expect to see ancient Egyptian artifacts in Shanghai, I believe the special exhibition is worth the price, but this is not the place to learn about Chinese and Shanghai history. If you happen to be in the area, the alternative ones are Shanghai Historical Museum and Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Center, both of which are in the People's Square area (disclaimer: I have yet to...

PERMANENT EXHIBITIONS MOVED TO ANOTHER SITE

PASSPORT AND AIRLINE TICKET NEEDED FOR ENTRY IF NOT CHINESE, AND RESERVATION IF YOU ARE.

This museum now houses temporary exhibitions. Currently a major exhibition in Egypt for another 7 months, and a small one on China and the world at time of Marco Polo with a few Chinese exhibits. There is also a large space for Chinese ethnic costumes largely from late 20th century, furniture, and cloisonné. Other galleries are closed.

The bronzes, ceramics, jade, paintings, calligraphy and sculptures have all moved to another brand new site - Shanghai Museum EAST. It’s about 10km away and 25 minutes by hourly (11:00 to 15:00) shuttle bus. (We visited that as well and it’s a truly fantastic no expense spared impressively modern museum).

The museum is extremely busy for the Egyptian temporary exhibition and we we repeatedly told we couldn’t enter. In the end we found a hut next to the left of four lions at the front of the museum where our passports and airline tickets were carefully and individually checked and recorded to prove we would be leaving Shanghai before the next reservable entry, and they then issued us free tickets which excluded the Egyptian exhibition. The cafe inside was relatively calm and they do great coffee. A good place to recover after the stress of getting in.

The only info we saw about the new site was a small notice outside the closed galleries saying the contents could be seen at the East campus...