The Power Station of Art stands on the Huangpu in the former Nanshi district, on the site of the city's first municipal power plant. The plant closed in 2007, and the main turbine hall, a stripped steel-and-concrete volume nearly two hundred metres long, was converted into a museum that opened in 2012. The great chimney was left standing as a landmark, and the industrial fabric of the building - gantries, pits, the scale of the internal space - is used deliberately as part of the exhibition architecture rather than hidden behind new finishes.
What it shows
It is China's first state-run contemporary art museum and it runs a programme of large temporary exhibitions rather than a permanent collection, with a mixture of Chinese and international artists working across installation, video, sculpture, painting and performance. The scale of the building allows pieces that would not fit anywhere else in the city, and the museum has become the anchor of the Shanghai Biennale. Admission to the main spaces is free, with charges only for some special exhibitions, which makes it one of the best-value cultural visits in Shanghai.
The museum mile
Within a short distance along the same stretch of river are several other converted or purpose-built art venues, forming what is now described as the museum mile: the Long Museum West Bund with its collections of traditional and modern Chinese art, the Yuz Museum in a former aircraft hangar, the West Bund Museum, and a group of commercial galleries. The riverside promenade connects them, with lawns, running tracks and cafe terraces facing the water, and the whole strip is walkable in an afternoon. Pudong's skyline is across the river, which gives the walk its backdrop.
Practical notes
The museum is open daily except Mondays, and the free admission means it can be busy at weekends; a weekday opening hour is much calmer. It is reached by subway and then a short walk or bus, and the riverside path is served by shared bicycles. Allow two hours for the main building alone and half a day if you want to include two or three of the neighbouring museums. The nearest subway stations are a ten to fifteen minute walk away, so plan on a little distance either way.
