Shanghai
Museum
The Shanghai Museum is a museum housing ancient
Chinese art, sitting on the People's Square in Shanghai, China
which was started in 1952 and opened in the Shanghai Racecourse
Clubhouse. It moved in 1959, into the old Zhonghui building that
has previously held bank and insurance offices, and it would sit
there until 1992, when it would be moved once more into the land
that the government had given them in People's Square.
Construction began in 1993, and finished in 1996, with five
floors and designed in the shape of an ancient bronze cooking
vessel called a ding. They say that the inspiration for the
design would be given by Da Ke Ding, that is now showcased at
the museum, with a round top and square base, that symbolizes
the Chinese perception of the world as a round sky and square
earth. This magnificent museum houses more than 120,000 pieces
of artworks that include; paintings, seals, bronze, calligraphy,
ancient coins, foreign art, ceramics, furniture, minority art
and jades. There are eleven galleries and three special
temporary exhibition halls. The museum also contains a number of
works that are of national significance, that includes an extant
specimen of a transparent bronze mirror that comes from the Han
dynasty.
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