The building with the clock tower on the north side of the square is the Shanghai History Museum, and the building itself is the first exhibit. It went up in 1934 as the Shanghai Race Club. The racecourse ran right through what is now People's Park and People's Square, an oval track of about two kilometres, and this was the grandstand1 and clubhouse. The tower is fifty-three metres high, and the clock in it was the timekeeper4 for the races.
广场北边那幢带钟楼的是上海市历史博物馆，这幢楼本身就是第一件展品。它 1934 年建成，原来是上海跑马总会。跑马场的跑道就在今天人民公园加人民广场这一片，一圈两公里左右的椭圆，这幢楼是看台兼会所。钟楼五十三米高，上面那口钟当年给赛马计时。
Racing stopped in 1949 and the track came up. The northern half of the ground became People's Park, the southern half became People's Square, and the building changed hands repeatedly. It held the Shanghai Library from 1959 to 1997, then the Shanghai Art Museum from 2000 to 2012. Only in 2018 did it become the city history museum. Four uses in eighty years, and the plan of a race clubhouse underneath all of them.
1949 年跑马停了，跑道翻掉。这块地北半边做了人民公园，南半边做了人民广场，这幢楼几次易主。1959 到 1997 年是上海图书馆，2000 到 2012 年是上海美术馆，一直到 2018 年才成为市历史博物馆。八十年里四个用途，底下压着的始终是一座跑马会所的平面。
The piece most visitors come for is on the ground floor. The two bronze lions that stood outside the HSBC building on the Bund from 1923 are here, the originals. They were taken down during the war and hidden, and after decades in storage they came to this museum when it opened. The ones you see at the bank today are casts2. Look at the front paws. The bronze is worn smooth and bright where people rubbed them for luck, and no copy can fake that.
多数观众冲着底层那件东西来。1923 年起立在外滩汇丰银行门口的那两头铜狮，原件就在这里。战时被拆下来藏起来，在库房里放了几十年，这个馆开馆时移了过来。今天各位在银行门口看到的是复制的。请看前爪，铜面被人摸得又亮又滑，那是几十年讨彩头摸出来的，复制品做不出来。
The permanent display3 fills two buildings and runs in four sections, from the ancient coast and the fishing settlements, through the opening of the port in 1843, the industrial city, and the revolutionary decades. Admission is free but you need to book online, and the museum is closed on Mondays. Ninety minutes covers it at a walking pace. If your group has only an hour, take them to the second section, where the 1843 port and the growth of the settlements are laid out clearly, and skip the rest.
常设展分在两幢楼里，共四个部分，从远古的海岸和渔村说起，经 1843 年开埠、工业城市，一路讲到革命年代。免费，需要网上预约，周一闭馆。走马看花九十分钟够。团队只有一小时的话，带他们看第二部分，1843 年开埠和租界的扩张在那里摆得最清楚，其余的略过。