[Shanghai Attractions] Rockbund Art Museum: A historic and ultra-design art museum

#Shanghai Attractions The Rockbund Art Museum, located at No. 20 Huqiu Road, was originally the Asiatic Society Building and was built in 1932. Huqiu Road was originally called Museum Road, and this building was the earliest museum open to the public in modern China. The first version of this museum was built in 1874 by British expatriates and displayed animal specimens collected from the Yangtze River Basin and North China. In 1931, the original building was demolished and rebuilt. It was designed by the British firm of C.W. & Co., and in 1932, a new five-story club building was completed in the Art Deco style with a distinct vertical composition on the facade. The top, balcony and iron gate are decorated with traditional Chinese patterns, the most special design being the Bagua windows. After the exhibition and arrangement, it was officially opened on November 15, 1933. The ground floor is the Wu Lien-teh Lecture Hall (lecture hall), the second and third floors house libraries, and the fourth and fifth floors are museum exhibition rooms. The fourth floor displays natural specimens, and the fifth floor displays Chinese historical relics. The average number of visitors per month is over 7,000. Over more than half a century, the Asiatic Society Building has established collection exchanges and business cooperation relationships with important international museums of the time, including the British Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and the Guimet Museum in France. It has done a lot of work in promoting academic research, promoting cultural exchanges, popularizing scientific knowledge and enriching citizens' lives. It became the largest Oriental Studies Center at the time and a well-known public cultural and educational institution in Shanghai. In 1952, this earliest museum in China was closed. The 20,328 natural specimens, 6,663 historical relics and art collections accumulated over the years form the collection basis of today's Shanghai Natural History Museum and Shanghai Museum respectively; its library's collection of more than 14,000 Chinese and Western books were incorporated into the Catholic Library in Xujiahui and became the special collection of Shanghai Library.