Shanghai Bank Museum (Shanghai Shi Yinhang Bowuguan)

Description:

• Another notch in the Shanghai museum belt, this one would seem to be a natural for this finance-oriented city. Unfortunately, the museum is only open to individual tourists on Wednesday afternoons from 1 to 4pm; the rest of the time, it caters only to tour groups with prior arrangements. Chronicling the history of Chinese banking from the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) to the present are more than 2,000 relics, including photographs of old-fashioned private banks, an account recording machine from the 1920s, and even a "6-billion-yuan" paper note (which could only buy 70 grains of rice during the period just before the 1949 revolution). If this interests you, call the museum to see if you can't somehow sweet-talk your way in. Enough public requests may make them change their entrance policy.

• © Frommer's 2013