The Shanghai Auto Museum, located in the Automobile Exhibition Park in Anting, Jiading, officially opened to the public in January 2007.
During the Dragon Boat Festival holiday, I planned a two-day trip to Jiading. I was hesitant about visiting this museum for a while.
Firstly, the admission fee of 60 yuan wasn’t exactly cheap. Secondly, as I’m not a car enthusiast, I was worried it might be boring to just look at a bunch of cars on display. On the second day of my holiday, after visiting Tongji University’s Jiading campus in the morning, the weather cleared up and the temperature rose in the afternoon. I decided to visit the auto museum to avoid the hottest part of the day.
To my surprise, I found the auto museum truly enjoyable, far from the boring experience I had imagined.
Let’s take a tour of this auto museum together.
The official WeChat account of the Shanghai Auto Museum describes it as “China’s first professional automobile museum” and “the most beautiful vintage car exhibition site in China.”
Entering from the North 1 gate of the Automobile Exhibition Park, you’ll see two uniquely designed streamlined buildings ahead: a larger one on the west side, which is the automobile exhibition center, and a more compact, taller one on the east side, which is the auto museum we’re visiting.
Before entering the museum, I was attracted by a vintage car about to start in front of the entrance. It turns out the museum offers a vintage car ride experience for 249 yuan per car, with a maximum of four passengers. Additionally, there’s a Motuo Auto Children’s Park on the fourth floor, which requires both the main ticket and a separate park ticket to enter.
The Shanghai Auto Museum has five floors in total.
The exhibition areas are located on the first to third floors.
The first floor is the history hall, with the main exhibition area to the right of the ticket entrance. Directly ahead is a temporary exhibition called “Chasing the Wind – 130 Years of World Motor Sports.”
Let’s start with the temporary exhibition.
The “Chasing the Wind – 130 Years of World Motor Sports” themed exhibition is composed of four main sections: “Wind Rising,” “Wind Realm,” “Wind Competition,” and “Towards the Wind.” It educates visitors about the characteristics of automotive competition and outlines the history of motor sports. There’s a timeline of major events in motor sports, detailing the stages from exploration and emergence to development and competition, and transmission and transformation. The exhibition also showcases automotive technologies that have transitioned from racetracks to civilian use, displaying precious exhibits such as the 1902 Panhard & Levassor Type A, the 1928 Bentley 4.5 Liter, the McLaren MP4-26 F1 race car, various automotive competition medals, and equipment.
After visiting this temporary exhibition, we enter the History Hall.
The History Hall follows the century-long development of automobiles, integrating important stages into eight themed exhibition areas: Prelude, Exploration and Birth, Practicality and Mass Production, Streamline and Speed, Diversity and Splendor, Sports and Driving, Energy Saving and Electronics, and Chinese Automobile Industry. It showcases the world’s automotive development process and reflects the significant impact of automobiles on human society.
Each exhibition area is accompanied by textual introductions and displays over twenty “vintage cars” from different eras. These include the “world’s first automobile” – the 1886 Benz three-wheeler, the 1907 Cadillac Model M, the 1913 Ford Model T that helped realize Ford’s dream of producing a “global car,” the 1951 Volkswagen Beetle, the 1955 Ford Thunderbird, and the 1959 Hongqi CA72 sedan, among others.
Leaving the History Hall, we proceed to the second floor along a circular walkway. Along the way, we can see various vehicles and an exhibition on “Old Shanghai Automobile Culture.” This exhibition combines text and artifacts to introduce the social and lifestyle changes brought about by the introduction of automobiles in early Shanghai, showcasing the evolution of old Shanghai’s car culture. We can see the conditions for obtaining a driver’s license at that time, what old driver’s licenses looked like, the development of trams and early tram tickets, which is quite interesting.
After a long walk around the circular pathway, we arrive at the Treasures Hall on the second floor.
The Treasures Hall displays precious antique cars from over a century. The exhibition space includes seven major sections: “Boiling Era,” “Golden Years,” “Speeding Along,” “Swaying Car Shadows,” “Mini Charm,” “National Dreams,” and “Legendary Cars.” Here we can see many ultra-luxurious, extra-long cars, as well as compact mini cars. At the entrance of the Treasures Hall, numerous car models are also on display. Besides vehicles, there are many vintage jukeboxes, Coca-Cola vending machines, other small appliances, and gas stations from different eras.
Whether they are antiques, ultra-long luxury cars, or mini cars, each vehicle is well-maintained and preserved. Combined with the exhibition lighting and background panels, they shine brilliantly, seeming to remain as vibrant as ever after weathering the years, ready to tell the story of a journey at any moment.
The Automobile Exploration Hall is located on the third floor of the museum, divided into three functional areas: Basic Automobile Knowledge, Automobile Design and Manufacturing, and Entertainment Experience. It features 10 physical and mechanical demonstration exhibits, as well as multimedia interactive experience exhibits, providing visitors with systematic and rich explanations on automobile structure, power, safety, comfort, and the future of automobiles. This exhibition area is very popular among children, as they can finally touch and explore hands-on. The Exploration Hall has a video about the future development of automobiles, played five times a day, each session lasting about ten minutes. The scenario envisioned in the video is set in 2030, which is just around the corner!
The 5th floor currently houses the “Jiajia Automotive Library.” Most of the books and magazines in the library are related to automobiles and are for in-house reading only, not for borrowing. Additionally, it seems that the library doesn’t have a separate entrance and exit, so one must enter through the Automobile Museum, which means purchasing a museum ticket is required to access the library.
The 5th floor offers a great view, allowing visitors to overlook the Automobile Exhibition Park and the distant Anting urban area through the glass windows.
The entire tour took about two and a half hours. The museum’s environment, exhibition layout, and maintenance of exhibits are all excellent. For car enthusiasts, this museum is definitely worth visiting. Even for those who are not car fans, the collection of so many vintage cars is worth appreciating and provides an opportunity to learn about the development of automobiles.
