"We hope to collaborate with leading institutions, such as the Shanghai Museum to present two themed exhibitions about Pudong every year."

The opening exhibition showcases several objects that have been lent by the Shanghai Museum and the Shanghai History Museum.

They include a collection of jade, artifacts with inscriptions of the pattern for longevity, and objects inset with gold, all of which were unearthed from the tomb of Lu Shen (1477-1544) in Pudong in 1969.

The Lu family was a renowned clan in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) and had lived on the eastern bank of the Huangpu River and the Wusong River, also known today as Suzhou Creek. It was the Lu clan that gave Shanghai's most important financial center its name — Lujiazui, or Lu's estuary.

Objects donated by people are on show, too. One donor is Feng Jianzhong, who is the head of the collectors' society in Pudong. Feng donated dozens of historical documents and objects that he gathered over the past decades, such as the original charter of a Pudong native association established in the 1930s, a blueprint of the association building in downtown Shanghai constructed in 1936, and historical maps of the area.

"I am a local and have deep feelings for my hometown. I am happy to see we have this new museum in Pudong. I think sharing my collections is more meaningful than keeping them at home," Feng says.