Expo Riverside: China Art Museum, PSA & the World Expo Museum

The walk begins at 中华艺术宫 (China Art Museum), and it is worth treating the first half-day as belonging to this one building. The 2010 World Expo China Pavilion was the expo's literal crown: a red dou-gong structure of stacked beams whose silhouette became the event's emblem, and it is the most recognisable Expo survivor still standing. Since 2022 the building has also housed 上海美术馆, so you get the national pavilion and the city art museum in one red shell. The headline draw is the multimedia 多媒体版《清明上河图》 on the 49 m level. The hours and the booking route are in the venue layer below, and they are the reason this stop belongs in the morning rather than the evening.

Caution: The interior closes to visitors well before the building does, so enter in good time if the 清明上河图 hall is why you came; the esplanade stays open after.

Photo suggestion: The red dou-gong crown from the esplanade, and the 清明上河图 hall if you go inside.

From China Art Museum, the 梅赛德斯-奔驰文化中心 (Mercedes-Benz Arena) is about 0.2 km away, a three-minute walk along the Expo axis. This was the 2010 Expo's Cultural Centre, a domed arena whose curved shell is pure event architecture rather than a museum, so on this walk it is an exterior landmark only, with no fixed visiting hours. I like pausing here because the contrast tells the Expo story: the pavilion that became a permanent museum next to the arena that stayed a temporary-use showpiece. Check the event calendar only if you actually want to go inside; otherwise let it frame the walk and keep moving toward the water. The open lawns between the two buildings are where the expo axis feels most like a park, and they make an easy first rest before the crossing.

Photo suggestion: The arena's curved shell against the China Art Museum's red crown, the two Expo survivors side by side.

To reach the river crossing on foot, walk east along the Pudong 世博滨江 promenade toward 南码头. This stretch is part of the 22 km East Bund greenway, with 望江驿 rest stations every roughly kilometre offering toilets and drinking water. It is flat, open and exposed, so in summer the sun is the real challenge rather than any hill. The path passes the expo-axis lawns and then runs beneath Nanpu Bridge's great spiral approach, which coils above the 南码头 ferry pier. I would walk this leg in the cooler part of the day, carrying water, because there is little shade once you leave the museum cluster. If the heat or time is against you, the Metro-Line-8 crossing from 中华艺术宫 is the shortcut that skips this approach entirely.

Caution: Open and unshaded in summer; carry water and use the 望江驿 stations. The promenade can route onto parallel roads where the riverside path is absent, so keep the river on your left.

Photo suggestion: Nanpu Bridge's spiral ramp above the ferry pier, the Pudong promenade opening toward the crossing.

This is the spine of the day, and you have two honest options. The 南陆线 ferry is the scenic choice: a short crossing that lands you at 陆家浜渡口 on the Puxi bank, with PSA about a kilometre downstream along the same water. The alternative is Metro Line 8 under the river to 西藏南路站, the fast, air-conditioned version that beats the summer heat and keeps the footstep total down. PSA's own listing notes it 'faces China Art Museum across the river', which is exactly the pairing this walk is built around. Pick the ferry if the light is good and you want the river itself as a stop; pick the metro if you are short on time or energy.

Photo suggestion: The ferry deck with the Pudong Expo skyline behind, or the under-river metro if you chose speed.

On the Puxi bank, the 上海当代艺术博物馆 (Power Station of Art, PSA) is the walk's second headline and its best story. It opened in 2012 as China's first state-run contemporary art museum, inside the former 南市发电厂 (Nanshi Power Plant), whose 165 m chimney still marks the Puxi skyline and is visible across the river from the China Art Museum. The raw industrial structure, steel trusses and that chimney are the photo subject. From the ferry landing, follow the 世博滨江 west and south; if you came by metro, 西藏南路站 is a 15-minute walk. Step inside even briefly, because the scale of the converted turbine hall is the point.

Caution: Mondays are dark here too. PSA runs later than the Pudong museums, which is what makes it the summer evening stop, and it is calmer than the China Art Museum.

Photo suggestion: PSA's 165 m chimney and steel-truss facade from the riverside lawn, the Puxi counterpoint to the red crown.

Leaving PSA, the route follows the continuous Puxi 世博滨江 promenade south, a wide riverside path about 1.5–2 km from PSA to the World Expo Museum near Lupu Bridge and Rihui Port. This is the quietest stretch of the day: a flat, open waterfront with the Huangpu on one side and the low Puxi riverside on the other, and it is the same greenway the 黄浦滨江 page covers in full, so treat this segment as the shared spine rather than a separate discovery. Benches and the occasional pavilion make natural pauses, and the light over the water is the reason photographers favour the late afternoon here. Keep ~0.5 L of water for this open run, because the summer sun is steady and shade is thin between the two museums.

Photo suggestion: The open Puxi promenade looking back at the PSA chimney and the river bend toward Lupu Bridge.

The walk ends at the 世博会博物馆 (World Expo Museum), opened in 2017 as the world's only official Expo-themed museum, a free walk-in just steps from Line 13 世博会博物馆站. Eight themed galleries tell the 160-year story of world's fairs, from the Great Exhibition of 1851 to the present, and it shuts earlier than anything else on the line. Time it for the early afternoon, after PSA and the riverside stretch, so you are inside when the last entry passes. This is the far end of the walk, 3.2 km of Puxi bank from the landing to this door, and a fitting full stop: the expo collected into one quiet finale.

Caution: This is the earliest closing on the route, so it is the stop that punishes a slow morning. If your walk lands on a Monday, both Puxi museums are dark and the river crossing becomes the whole point instead.

Photo suggestion: The Expo Museum's calm facade at the greenway's end, the finish marker beside Line 13.