City’s urban planning exhibition hall reopens

SHANGHAI’S landmark urban planning exhibition hall reopened to the public for free yesterday after a nearly two-year renovation.

The Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Center on People’s Avenue in downtown Huangpu District has incorporated new technologies, such as virtual reality, augmented reality, 8K high definition screens as well as the world’s largest five-dimensional digital map to showcase the city’s past, present and future development.

It is open for free between 9am and 5pm every day, except Wednesdays. Visitors must make online reservations and have a negative polymerase chain reaction test result from within the previous 72 hours.

All the 500 quotas for the first day were reserved immediately after the center announced the reopening on its official WeChat account.

“I think it is the best place for children to learn about the city’s history and future,” said Pan Hong’an, a local retiree who took his grandson to the center at around 10am yesterday.

“The new exhibition includes many high-tech facilities which well represent Shanghai’s status as a scientific innovation hub.”

The center closed on December 1, 2019, for its biggest facelift since the venue was inaugurated in February 2000.

During its over two decades of operation, the center has received a total of 7.2 million visitors, including 60 percent from overseas. Many foreign tourists took the center as the first stop of their Shanghai visit, according to the center.

It is the first exhibition center in China dedicated to urban planning and construction achievements.

The center was scheduled to reopen in March, but that was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic resurgence.

The new exhibition center mainly introduces the city’s 2035 master plan in several themed exhibitions such as “humanistic,” “innovation” and “ecological.”

Currently, the inaugural exhibition — Beijing-Shanghai Urban Culture Image Studies — is on through September 10.