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Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Center

You might have imaged it, but if you want to see what a city of the future is really going to look like, come and visit this exhibition center on the eastern end of People's Square. Housed in a striking modern five-story building made of microlite glass, this is one of the world's largest showcases of urban development and is much more interesting than its dry name suggests.

Modernistic Building of the Shanghai Urban Planning Center	The models of Shanghai's landmarks at the entrance

The highlight is on the third floor: an awesome vast scale model of urban Shanghai as it will look in a couple of decades, a master plan full of endless skyscrapers punctuated occasionally by patches of green. The clear plastic models indicate structures yet to be built, and there are many of them. The model is built at 1:2000 scale. For a foreigner, seeing such a model may be a big surprise to know how large the city is, and how many skyscrapers there are. For reference, Shanghai's population is about 22 million people, compared to about 8 million in New York. Most U.S. cities have a "downtown" type area where the most skyscrapers are clustered, but Shanghai is a city of skyscrapers everywhere.

The vast scale model of urban Shanghai, full of endless skyscrapers	A part of the model with the Huangpu River and the landmarks like the Oriental Pearl Tower and Jinmao Tower

The rest of the building includes a U-shaped mezzanine with photographic exhibits of colonial and contemporary Shanghai, a temporary exhibit hall on the second floor, and a cafe and art gallery on the fifth. There are restaurants and retail outlets crafted in the style of 1930s Shanghai on the underground level that connects to the Metro. The museum is well worth your time of an afternoon.

Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Center

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