Shanghai Astronomy Museum

The Shanghai Astronomy Museum (上海天文馆, Shànghǎi Tiānwénguǎn) at 380 Lingang Avenue is a planetarium and astronomy museum that opened to the public on 18 July 2021. Go if astronomy interests you or you are travelling with children; it is a long trip from central Shanghai and best treated as a half-day outing.

How far out it is. The museum is in Lingang, in the far southeast of Pudong. The nearest metro stop is Dishui Lake (滴水湖), the southern end of Line 16, and Chinese Wikipedia puts the museum about 800 metres from it. Line 16 is 58.96 kilometres long, according to English Wikipedia. Between its two ends, an express that stops only at those two stations takes about 34 minutes; the ordinary service takes about 55. Those are end-to-end times for the whole line, not door-to-door from the Bund, so allow for the transfer and the walk. The T1 and T2 medium-capacity lines also serve the area, via Huanhu West 3rd Road station.

What it is. The museum is a branch of the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum, which built it; the Shanghai Astronomical Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences gave technical support. The architect is Ennead Architects of New York, and English Wikipedia says the building has no straight lines or right angles. From above, the Pudong government site says, it resembles two linked planetary orbits. It has about 38,000 square metres of floor area and can host about 6,000 visitors a day.

What you will see. The planetarium dome is 17 metres across. The three main exhibitions are Home (家园), Universe (宇宙) and Odyssey (征程), the last of which Chinese Wikipedia calls Journey. Equipment includes a 1-metre telescope and a 65-centimetre solar telescope, and a 21.4-kilogram Changxing meteorite is on display. Chinese Wikipedia also lists an 8K dome cinema, the Wangshu Observatory (望舒天文台) and the Xihe Solar Tower (羲和太阳塔).

Dates. Sources differ slightly on the opening. Chinese Wikipedia says the museum opened on 17 July 2021 after trial days on 5 and 10 July, with the public admitted the next day; Xinhua and English Wikipedia give 18 July for public opening.

Practical. No official hours page was readable when this entry was written. Press reports from 2021 described advance online booking with timed entry, and a Monday closure; those details may have changed. Check the museum’s official site or WeChat account before you go. The China Maritime Museum (中国航海博物馆) is also in Lingang, so the two can share one trip.