Book ahead to visit securities museum
Rebuilt in 1912 in a neo-classical Baroque style, the Astor House Hotel is one of the most lavish hotels in the city. It now houses the China Securities Museum which opens in a trial operation on Saturday.
The China Securities Museum will only allow a limited number of group visitors every Tuesday and Thursday during trial operations to protect the historic Astor House Hotel.
The museum opened on Saturday but no individual visitors are allowed and groups must book at least one week in advance.
Admission is free but ID or passports are required.
Four time slots are on offer and English language guides will be available soon. The museum will receive up to 200 visitors a day and will officially open by the end of 2020.
“The hotel is a listed building which can only receive limited number of visitors,” said the museum’s Zhang Weidong.
Another branch of the museum is planned in offices of the Shanghai Stock Exchange which are near completion in Pudong. It will also officially open by the end of 2020.
Visitors are asked to keep quiet and avoid taking videos or using flash to protect items on display such as handwritten certificates of China’s earliest stocks dating back to the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).
Prospective visitors can send applications to zgzqbwg@163.com for evaluation.
The elegant Richards Hall on the second floor of the China Securities Museum.
The former trading center of the Shanghai Stock Exchange is restored in the Peacock Hall, or the main banquet hall, on the ground floor.
Visitors watch the historic stock certificates being displayed on the third floor of the museum.
A key exhibit is a written certificate of China's earliest stock which was issued in 1881 by the Kaiping Mining Bureau, a private coal mine under the supervision of the Qing Dynasty government in Tangshan City of north China's Hebei Province.
