Today, my roomies and I decided to visit one of the most beautiful museum of Shanghai: The Shanghai Museum. Situated near People’s Square, it is constituted of 4 floors, with diverse exhibitions showing Chinese culture.
I loved it so much I decided to write a series of 4 articles (one for each floor) dedicated to the museum.
First, the architecture of the building itself is truly beautiful.
The fourth floor is constituted of four exhibits. My favorite one is the Minorities in China and Tibetan traditional costumes one.
I was truly amazed by the details put in the traditional Tibetan attires. The clothes were made of diverse colorful motifs and embroideries. They were sometimes completed by a set of jewels made of metal and stones.
A little bit further, I could admire ceremony and opera masks from Tibetan tribes. They were at the same time disturbing and funny.
The next exhibit was the one about jade sculpture. Chinese truly master the art of sculpting tiny little jade objects. The amount of details and hard work put into the realization of such pieces is amazing. All of the objects were from the Ming, Yuan and Quing dynasties.
There was then an exhibit on Chinese wooden furniture. I could see a reconstituted living room from ancient China. The furniture, although very refined, seemed a little bit uncomfortable!
The last one was my least favorite one (a shame for an Economics major). It was displaying currencies. China had many various currencies, changing during and through dynasties.
It took me approximately 2 hours to visit just one floor! But it was well worth it (and the admission is free 🙂 )
A Frenchie in Shanghai 