China Securities Museum
MuseumThe Bund & East Nanjing Road
CHINA SECURITIES MUSEUM · ZHONGGUO ZHENGQUAN BOWUGUAN
FreeClosure day
☾ ✦
The former Astor House Hotel just north of Waibaidu Bridge — Shanghai's grand old hotel (founded 1846, present wings built 1908-1911) where China's earliest electric lights glowed in 1882 and Chaplin and Bernard Shaw stayed. Since 2018 it's the national securities museum: free, closed Mondays, no reservation for individuals. The ballroom was the Shanghai Stock Exchange's first trading floor (1990-97).
AdmissionFree; individuals need no reservation
HoursTue-Sun 9:30-16:00 (to 16:30 weekends & holidays)
ClosedMondays
Address15 Huangpu Road (Hongkou district, north foot of Waibaidu Bridge)
EntranceMain door at 15 Huangpu Road; no visitor parking
None needed for individuals; groups use the official site or WeChat account 中国证券博物馆
Most tourists cross Waibaidu Bridge, photograph Broadway Mansions and turn back — almost nobody comes inside. The quietest interior at the Bund's north end; chain it with the bridge and Broadway Mansions into a 20-minute loop.
How to visit
- Renamed Pujiang Hotel in 1959, it stopped taking hotel guests after 2017 — the whole building is now the museum, so no, you can't book a room.
- The Waibaidu Bridge is right outside, with Broadway Mansions and the old Russian consulate in the same frame — a natural stop on the Bund's northern walking line.
- Groups of 10+ only need to book (by 11:00 on the Friday a week before) if they want a guided tour or activity; unguided groups can also walk in.
Did you know
- The guest book is half of modern history: Ulysses S. Grant (1879), Bertrand Russell (1920), Chaplin (1931/1936) and Bernard Shaw (1933) all came, and Zhou Enlai sheltered here with his wife in 1927; Einstein's 1922 visit is traditionally linked to an overnight stay too — though the lodging record for that one is disputed.
- China's earliest electric lights switched on here in July 1882, and in 1883 it became the first Shanghai building with running water — both get dedicated exhibits; it also hosted one of China's earliest film screenings in 1897 (the museum says the first; scholars also cite an 1896 screening at Xu Garden).
- The Peacock Hall ballroom served as the Shanghai Stock Exchange's first trading floor from 1990 to 1997 — the delivery room of China's modern capital market; the collection includes 'Little Feile', among the first share certificates of the PRC era.
- Founded in 1846 as Richards' Hotel, moved to this site in 1858 and renamed Astor House in 1859; the surviving main wings along Huangpu Road went up in 1908-1911, neoclassical with Victorian-baroque touches.
Source · TripMind verified 2026-09-02+ Add to trip