China Art Museum (Expo China Pavilion)

The China Art Museum in Shanghai is an art museum housed in a very unusual building. The building was the China Pavilion at the Shanghai Expo in 2010, designed by a team led by the architect He Jingtang. It is 63 metres tall, and it stands on four giant pillars with an upside-down pyramid of red beams above.

After the Expo ended, the pavilion was so popular, with close to 17 million visitors, that it stayed open for six extra months. Then the city decided to make it the new home of the Shanghai Art Museum. The China Art Museum opened on 1 October 2012, which is China's National Day.

What does the building look like?

The red shape is based on a traditional Chinese wooden bracket called a dougong, in which layers of beams interlock and carry heavy roofs, and on an ancient bronze cauldron called a ding. The pavilion was nicknamed the 'Crown of the East'. It was the tallest structure at the Expo and also the most expensive pavilion, costing about 220 million US dollars. Building began on 28 December 2007 and ended on 8 February 2010.

What is inside?

The museum has a collection of about 14,000 artworks, mostly modern Chinese art. One permanent show follows modern and contemporary Chinese art, starting with the Shanghai School at the end of the Qing dynasty. It covers more than 6,000 works over two floors. The museum's new building is more than ten times larger than the old one, where the Shanghai Art Museum had been since 2000.

On the globe

The model shows a red upside-down pyramid of interlocking beams lifted on four huge pillars. Look for the stacked layers that copy a dougong bracket.