A gleaming art castle in the sky

The Baoku Jiangxin Art Center recently opened in the Shanghai Tower, the tallest skyscraper in the city — “an art venue in the air.”

On the 38th floor of the building in the Lujiazui financial district, the center recently launched an exhibition titled “2018 China’s Arts and Crafts.”

Covering 2,000 square meters, the exhibition features traditional arts and crafts, from jade to wood, bamboo carving, lacquer, weaving, dyeing and embroidery, showcasing the profound range of China’s craftsmanship and its intangible cultural heritage.

“The center will build up a platform for exhibiting, trading and communicating the original Chinese traditional arts and crafts to the public,” says Baoku CEO Si Haizhou.

Baoku Jiangxin Art Center is one of the projects of Baoku China, a “cultural supplier” established in 2012.

“Shanghai Tower will not merely be a physical vertical symbol of the city, I am sure it will become an art icon of the city,” says Liu Feiguo, founder of Baoku China.

Among them are the Guan Fu Museum Shanghai which is on the 37th floor of Shanghai Tower.

Ma Weidu, one of the best-known antique collectors in China, is the owner of the Guan Fu Museum, which covers 6,000 square-meters and showcases nearly 500 antiques collected by him — from porcelain to Buddha sculptures, gold and furniture.

The 480-square-meter enamel floor on the same floor is also impressive. It took 134 craftsmen 321,681 hours to put it up and is recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s biggest enamel floor.

Other highlights at Shanghai Tower include No.1 Baoku in the basement — nearly 3,000 safe boxes said to be able to “withstand a nuclear blast” are available to the public.

Date: Through December 31, 10am-5pm 

Venue: Baoku Jiangxin Art Center

Address: 479 Lujiazui Ring Rd