The center opened in 2000 on the east side of People's Square, in the middle of the historic city center. Its purpose is public education: to show residents and visitors how Shanghai's growth has been directed by successive five-year plans, and what the city intends to build next.
The city model
The main floor holds an enormous physical model of central Shanghai at a scale fine enough to pick out individual blocks. It is lit and can be walked around, and it is the single best orientation tool in the city. After ten minutes here, the river bends, the ring roads and the relationship between Puxi and Pudong stop being abstractions.
The other floors
Displays cover the history of Shanghai's urban form, from the walled county town and the foreign concessions to the modern ring-road and metro networks. There are sections on housing, transport planning, environmental targets and the redevelopment of the Suzhou Creek and Huangpu riversides. Models, plans, photographs and interactive screens run throughout, with English captions on most exhibits.
Visiting notes
The center is a two-minute walk from People's Square metro station and sits next to the Shanghai Museum, which makes the two easy to combine in one morning. Allow about ninety minutes. It is a particularly good first-day activity, before walking the Bund or Pudong, because the model gives everything you see afterward a place to sit. Weekday mornings are quiet.
