Shanghai Auto Museum 上海汽车博物馆

About Shanghai Auto Museum

The museum links vehicle design with the history of automotive technology.

Its sections cover history, collections, exploration and temporary exhibitions. Historic cars from Chinese and international makers provide tangible comparisons across different periods of motoring. Focus on a few changes in vehicle form or engineering rather than treating the collection as a checklist of brands; individual models on display can change.

The museum, China's first specialist automobile museum, was completed on October 24, 2006, and opened to the public on January 17, 2007. Its floor area covers 28,000 square meters, with an exhibition area of over 10,000 square meters, and it displays more than 80 real vehicles.

The five-story building was designed by IFB of Germany together with Tongji University's architectural design institute, on a theme of 'spatial communication and fusion, visual penetration and exchange.' Its facade is largely glass, giving views of the surrounding park, with terraces and roof platforms at different levels, while an open, multi-story interior links the exhibition areas visually. The exterior's flowing curves are meant to suggest a vehicle's high-speed trajectory, and the stacked massing has been likened to piled books. The first floor houses the History Pavilion (汽车历史馆), the second the Antique Car Pavilion (古董车馆), with the Shanghai Auto Culture exhibit (上海汽车风情展) on the mezzanine between them, and a hands-on Science Exploration Hall (科技探索馆) on the third floor.

What to look for

• Historic automobiles allow comparisons across successive periods of vehicle design.
• History and exploration sections link the cars with technological development.

Location & getting there

Getting to Shanghai Auto Museum

Travel to the Auto Expo Park in Anting, Jiading, and use Shanghai Auto Museum as the specific destination within Automobile City.