Museum
Shanghai Postal Museum
Chinese name
上海邮政博物馆
Chinese address
上海市虹口区天潼路395号
Opening hours: 09:00 - 17:00
Take a look at the grand classical building directly in front of us, sitting right along Suzhou Creek, this is the Shanghai General Post Office Building, which today houses the Shanghai Postal Museum.
It was completed in 1924, designed by the British architectural firm Palmer and Turner. They built it in an eclectic classical style, with towering Corinthian columns along the facade and a distinctive clock tower topped with statues. At the time it opened, it served as the headquarters for Shanghai's postal network and handled a massive share of China's mail.
Inside, the building still functions partly as an active post office branch, while the upper levels and main trading hall house the museum. The exhibits trace the history of postal communication in China, reaching all the way back to the ancient relay messenger systems of early dynasties, through the development of the Imperial Maritime Customs postal service, and up to the modern era.
One of the highlights inside is the great hall, once known as the first hall of the Far East because of its sheer size. The museum also displays rare early Chinese stamps, vintage mail transport vehicles, and scale models illustrating how letters and packages moved through the city over the past century.