The Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Hall locates at the east part of People's Square of Shanghai. It covers an area of 3,600 square meters. It is 43.3 meters tall with 5 floors up ground and 2 floors underground. Its exhibition subject is city, people, environment, and development. It tells people the procedure that Shanghai becomes a famous international city from a small fishing village. It exhibits the overall layout of Shanghai, especially the great changes that have taken place since the reform and opens to the outside world in 1978.
The figure of the building is just like a city gate, which means that buildings have close relationship with a city. It is the perfect combination of traditional and modern architectural design. On the top of the building, its figures are like four white magnolias – the city flower of Shanghai city.
This great exhibition hall wins a lot of prizes in China. It uses high-tech ways to exhibit Shanghai's future blueprint till 2020. The whole exhibition hall is professional, interesting, and informative. It perfectly showcases Shanghai's past, present and future.
The first floor is the entrance and basic introduction level. The main feature of the first floor is a large revolving statue of some of Shanghai's most famous buildings. It is wide and spacious allowing many tour groups to gather and get situated before heading upstairs.
The second floor showcases Shanghai's past. It shows how the city went from being just a small fishing village to a major world metropolis. It has some movies and moving models which depict ancient Shanghai. There are several models of some of Shanghai's oldest buildings and bridges. There are also many photos of old Shanghai and the buildings which still exist have photos representing what they looked like when new and what they look like now.
The third floor features Shanghai's present. This is where the huge scale model is located. The model's accuracy is astounding. The new Global Financial Building was already on the model along with some buildings under construction. The model went through an entire day cycle from sunrise to night with all of the building's windows illuminated from inside. Next to the model was a round room. On the round walls of the rooms was a 360degree movie taking visitors on a bird's eye trip around the city.
The fourth floor shows Shanghai's future. It shows in models and photos, what is in store for Shanghai. It has models of the airports and railway stations and how they are going to be upgraded in the near future. It also shows the plans for the new subway, and also the underground roads being built to help ease congestion.
The fifth floor showcases the 2010 World Expo. It has many models showing what the area will look like when completed. It has large models of some of the individual countries' pavilions and the entire site as a whole. It shows what is being planned and what is being constructed.
The basement was built to appear like a street in old Shanghai. It has some restaurants and shops. The Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Hall brings Shanghai alive. The giant model really helps bring the city into perspective and works like a giant map. It must make visitors' tours of Shanghai a lot more fulfilling.
