Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Center

The Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition hall is situated on the east side of the People's Square (Renmin Square). Built to tell Shanghai's story from its past, present and vision of the future, anyone who wants to see how a city has developed and evolved over time and how it will look in the future, should pay this hall a visit.

Opened in 2000, it is five stories high with two basement levels. Its external design is built to look like an ancient city gate and top of the building is made to resemble a white magnolia which is the flower of Shanghai. It is designed inside so that each floor showcases a different stage in Shanghai's timeline.

The basement levels have been designed to look like 1930s style Shanghai with old streets and cobbles. It has some shops and restaurants among them.

The second floor tells of Shanghai's past history as a fishing village and how it turned into one of the world's major cities. It has lots of "now and then" pictures of famous Shanghai places.

Stepping onto the third floor brings you to the Hall's most amazing model and biggest attraction, a 1/500 scale model of entire present day Shanghai including any approved buildings yet to be built. It is truly a special sight. A vision of Shanghai's future greets your eyes on the fourth floor. It has design pictures and models of possible and likely changes to Shanghai.

At time of writing housed on the top level is a display on the 2010 world expo.