Shanghai Trip Part 12: World Expo Museum (世博会博物馆)

[Introduction]

I traveled to Shanghai, China, in late May. If I had been fluent in Chinese, I could have enjoyed the trip more, but I was impressed with a fine mixture of retro and modern elements in Shanghai. In this article, I will write about World Expo Museum (世博会博物馆) as part of Day 4. It is the only museum in the world that features the World Expo and the admission is free in spite of gorgeous facilities and exhibits.

[Visit Places (series of articles)]
* Day 1: Fly to Hongqiao International Airport
* Day 1: Waitan (The Bund)
* Day 1: Waitan (The Bund) (Light-up)
* Day 2: Oriental Pearl Tower
* Day 2: Jin Mao Tower
* Day 2: Shanghai Tower
* Day 2: Shanghai World Financial Center
* Day 2: Pudong (Light-up)
* Day 3: Yu Garden
* Day 3: Xintiandi, Middle Huaihai Road, Hengshan Road and Tianzifang
* Day 3: East Nanjing Road (Light-up)
* Day 4: Shanghai World Expo Museum [This article]
* Day 4: Natural History Museum, Ocean Aquarium and China Art Museum
* Day 4: Yu Garden (Light-up)
* Day 5: Great World (Dashijie), Jing’an Temple and Shanghai Exhibition Center
* Day 5: Return Home from Pudong International Airport

[Travel Date]
2018.05.23 – 27

[Main Part]

Breakfast at Sofitel Shanghai Hyland

It was the fourth day of my Shanghai trip. To begin with, I will have breakfast at Sofitel Shanghai Hyland where I have been staying.

The weather forecast predicted that it would be rainy all the day and it has been actually raining since morning. So, I partially changed my itinerary and decided to go around several museums on the fourth day.

“West Nanjing Road (南京西路)” station on the way to the first destination.

World Expo Museum (世博会博物馆)

The first destination of the fourth day was “World Expo Museum (世博会博物馆)”.

“World Expo Museum (世博会博物馆)” is a museum built at the site of the Expo 2010 Shanghai. It is the only museum that features World Expos in the world.

The building itself was quite unique, so I wish I had been able to take photos under the blue sky.

Anyway, let’s go into the museum.

A list of the World Expo host cities.

“World Expo Museum (世博会博物馆)” was divided into eight areas.

In the early 20th century, new inventions such as sewing machine, telephone and airplane were introduced for the first time at the World Expos.

A monument of the Brussels World’s Fair held in 1958.

A tower of the Seattle World’s Fair in 1962.

It became futuristic during the 1970s.

According to the website of the museum, “The Tower of the Sun” of the 1970 Osaka Expo was supposed to be exhibited in this area, but unfortunately I couldn’t find it as I suppose it was replaced with other exhibits.

Anyway, there were a lot of attractive exhibits other than “The Tower of the Sun”, so I was not bored at all.

This area was related to the Shanghai Expo held in 2010.

Panels showed how pavilions were constructed.

A diorama of the Expo site.

The building in the center is “China Art Museum”, which I will visit this afternoon.

Here are exhibits of the Shanghai Expo by foreign pavilions.

Here are exhibits of the Shanghai Expo by the China pavilion.

The last area was “Vision of Future”, which makes a review to the more than 180 years of Expo history and delivers a message to the future.

Then, I left “World Expo Museum (世博会博物馆)” for the next destination.

[Closing]

That’s it for the article about World Expo Museum (世博会博物馆) as part of Day 4.

After the opening of the museum in May 2017, the number of visitors was limited to 4,000 per day and making a reservation via its official Wechat (微信) with Chinese ID number was required for a while, so it was difficult for foreign tourists to visit the museum. Now, however, such a restriction has been removed and the museum has been open to public, both Chinese and foreign visitors. In addition, the admission is free despite of such facilities and exhibits. So, I strongly recommend “World Expo Museum (世博会博物馆)” 🙂

In the next article, I will write about Natural History Museum, Ocean Aquarium and China Art Museum as part of Day 4.

[Map]

1 World Expo Museum

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