Built in 1934 as the Shanghai Race Club and known for its iconic bell tower, the most recent two-year renovation of this space gave us one of Shanghai's best museums. It sports 9,800-square-meters (that's 2.42 acres) of exhibition area, with around 1,100 artifacts on display, such as the original bronze lions outside the HSBC building on the Bund from 1932. The museum is organized into three sections: special exhibitions (ground floor); ancient Shanghai (2nd floor); and modern Shanghai (3rd, 4th floor). Notably, they have an exhibition of relics from the Majiabang culture, which lived in modern day Qingpu roughly 6,000-7,000 years ago. They also have regularly rotating temporary exhibitions. The displays are clean, well-presented, with many interactive displays, and something like 80% of the descriptions are also in English. You could easily spend a whole day in here, if you're a history buff. Entrance is free, but be prepared for large crowds which tend to thin out on the upper floors.