Located on the western bank of Shanghai's iconic Huangpu river, the World Expo Museum is regarded as one of the city's cultural landmarks. The museum is the largest building in Shanghai's central district, and first came to public attention when it hosted the 2010 World Expo opening ceremony. And from the beginning of next month, the 4-thousand square meter building is to open its doors to the public.
One of the building's most distinctive characteristics is its design, with the cloud-shaped glass dome of the museum resembling an elaborate crystal. The extravagant dome was constructed from over three-thousand pieces of glass.
Another of the museum's notable highlights is an impressive crystal model of a palace. Look more closely, and you can see the model is a replica of the London World Expo museum from way back in 1851, and also features as the emblem of the 2010 Shanghai World Expo.
Made of organic glass and metal, it is also the biggest crystal palace model in the world.
The 2010 World Expo was held here in this museum. The videos on the wall play footage from that event.
The museum consists of eight exhibition rooms which showcase the historical world expo events to the public. Notable replicas on show include Buddhist sculptures from Thailand, the Statue of Liberty and of course, Chinese pavilions.
The pieces in exhibition room number 7 are mainly Chinese pavilions. You can see models such as the Jiang Pavilion and the Hainan Pavilion.
The Shanghai World Expo Museum will be open to the public free of charge from May 1st.
