The Trip of Shanghai Museum of Public Security | Aug. 2024 | There Are Many Weapon Collections
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Intro
In August I have 2 Museum-trips, the first was to go to Zhenjiang Museum, which we have talked about before. Now in this video/article let’s talk about my second trip, Shanghai Museum of Public Security and I will share something about what I think are the coolest parts.
0. Ready to Start!
The traffic to get to the museum is not difficult. The location is in the south area of downtown Shanghai after all. We can go there by bus or subway. By the way, this museum is also near the Shanghai Expo Park, which hosted the Shanghai Expo 2010. When I went to the museum after stepping out of the subway, I also could visit the city view at the same time.
It was not a very long time. I just arrived at the museum. Entering the museum is the same as entering the Zhenjiang Museum. It’s totally free but we must use an ID card or passport. But I forgot to take the photos. By the way, I think a very friendly point is that if you forget the ID card or passport, you can just sign in by hand on the paper near the gate.
After entering the gate, we just stand in the hall, which is the first floor of this building. The next step is to go to the elevator. Because this is a building with 7 floors. But today, the fifth, sixth and seventh floors were not open. So this time I only could visit from the second floor to the fourth floor. Because if we want to go to galleries, we have to go up the floors. Thus there are 2 visiting routes, one is from the second floor to the fourth floor and two is from the fourth floor and going down to the second floor. It’s very convenient point is that the floor map is on the wall near the elevator. Meanwhile, as I knew that the fourth floor was the coolest part, so I just decided to go to the fourth floor with other visitors first. At this moment the trip finally started.
1. Firefighting-4F
After stepping out of the elevator, I entered the first gallery that I visited. This is about the history of firefighting in Shanghai city. The first stage of history was in the ancient time, such as the Ming dynasty and the Qing dynasty, especially in the late part of the Qing dynasty because during this time, Shanghai became more and more bustling and more prosperous in commerce and industry. So firefighting also became far more important than before. The first firefighting equipment collection also reflected this stage. Generally the people used this kind of early squirt gun with power from human-hand. By the way, before I saw this equipment, it was from the website of the Palace Museum of Beijing, the online collection gallery. Now this time I finally can see the real things.
Besides the water cannon for the fire, there are other assistance equipment, such as the basic tool, axes, bamboo hats, barrels, the long handle oil lamps, the common oil lamp and gas lamp. These vintage lamps generally were used before the electric lights were created, especially before the 1880s. Additionally, the personal equipment was also very important. Like these helmets. We can see the Chinese characters were made on the helmets and the whole helmets were made from metal. Based on the shape, I think they are very similar to the shape of the British police hat.
Then, we also see the equipment also changing and improving with the time going. Maybe because the area is limited, the vintage fire trucks that were built in the early years of the 20th century are shown for visitors as the models. Fortunately the models also can have very good details. Besides the truck models, there are many other fire fighting equipment that was used in the early years of the 20th century. I think the equipment that makes me very surprised is the antique fire extinguisher that was made from copper. In my mind, this kind of thing should be a very modern thing. But in fact, the situation is like the air gun’s history. It seems that the air gun only exists today, but it was created hundreds of years ago. But it is just not as popular as nowadays, we can see it almost everywhere.
Continuing on, there is a book that recorded a report about the brave firefighters. Then I saw some very interesting things. They are firefighting grenades, which were used in the 1950s. The surprising point is that some of them are so artistic. After seeing them, there is more and more modern firefighting equipment, such as engines, firefighting ship models, telephones, oxygen masks, etc. But I suddenly found that there was broken glass. Probably there was an accident, someone or something broke it but in this firefighting gallery the broken glass seemingly became a collection which showed us about the safety of glass.
After seeing them, I turned around and saw a big wagon wheel-like thing. However, according to the description, it likely wasn’t a wheel but it actually was a part of the wheeled escape ladder.
With the time going, the city is becoming larger and more complex, so in order to keep safe and reduce the risk of fire hazard. In recent years fireworks started to be limited to use in the city. So the final part of the collection just talks about this part of recent history in this firefighting gallery. Such as this big cloth where 2 chinese characters 防火(fire protection) were written here. It's like it’s telling us to always keep fire safe and many people have signed their name here.
2. Firearms-Pistols-4F
The next gallery is the coolest part. Because there are many historical and very rare firearms. When we see the wall from the photo where we can see many old pistols and there also is a flag. This flag could mean the Shanghai International Settlement from 1863 to the 1940s. Honestly this museum is a police themed museum but the firearm collections are so varied and even as much as the military museums. Most of the firearms are seemingly military firearms but they should be the equipment for policemen. Maybe there are many small pistols for self-defense for famous and important people. Although they are very small and cute, they still could be very powerful and it’s enough to protect the users. Such as this pistol. It could be very special as its user was very famous. The user was Sun Yat-sen(孫中山). Near the pistol collections, there are some special documents and these are weapon licenses and the card used to record policemen of Shanghai using and training in that era.
Besides the very famous pistols, revolvers, there are even some very rare pistols. Such as this golden colored pistol. Based on the seven nails on the gun body, we can very easily recognize that this is a Spanish version of the Mauser pistol, also known as Astra.
Continuing going, some special firearms appeared. The firearm was hidden in a long cane. They were built in the 1920s and 1930s and they look like they jumped from films, especially the spy films. Besides the long cane firearms, there are other smaller hidden style firearms. Like, mixing the firearms into pens and built in the 1930s. and also the palm pistol built in the 1880s, cigarette case pistol which should be another type of palm pistol and this series of pistols were produced from 1893 to 1918 in France. The last 2 pistols are modern pistols. The upper one was built in the 1980s and it should be able to shoot the 8mm tear gas shell. The down one was built in the 1940s and it had a very special 6.35mm caliber.
On the next side of the small self-defense or spy pistols, there are some big machine guns. But I think the most precious gun should be this Japanese type 11 machine gun. As a not very successful machine gun, it still produced 29,000 in all in history. But such a very fine type 11 machine gun is rare and valuable.
After visiting this museum, I finally understand how to distinguish the semi-auto Mauser pistol and the full-auto Mauser pistol. The typical and original semi-auto Mauser pistol didn’t have a selective fire switch and it only had a safety that was near the hammer. However, the full-auto Mauser was added with a new selective fire switch. But the original safety was still in the same place.
Besides the modern-made automatic rifles, classical submachine guns, famous rifles, shotguns, many other pistols, etc. there are other series guns, which is the signal gun. I was very surprised that I could see the early types of signal guns this time.
3. Police in the World-4F
Next, it’s a typical police culture theme gallery. Near the gate, there are 2 beautiful swords, one is a sword with Chinese Spring and autumn period style whose name is the Sword of Justice and another one is a western style sword, which is actually a parade sword for Chinese army, navy and air force and this sword is also a series sword. So this sword that is collected in this museum is one of the military parade swords in the sword family.
Then there are many police shoulder boards. But unfortunately I didn’t take the photo clearly enough. With going, we can see more signs, hats, medals and souvenirs from many different regions all over the world.
三层
4. True Crime and City Governance-3F
Now the next gallery, I would like to call it the true crime theme gallery. Because in this gallery, we can see many murder weapons and in order to let the visitors know the details about the criminal cases, the museum also gave us descriptions of the weapons and the corresponding reports in the newspapers.
I think there is a smart arrangement of the gallery, not only we can find criminal weapons, but also we can see many historical cameras of photo documentation in order to let us know the development of methods to discover evidence. In this gallery, we also can find that the murderers can use everything to do crime, even only an iron pipe, which can do the horrible things as well. So maybe the things can’t do murder, but the people can.
Then continuing going, we can enter the City Governance gallery. In this gallery there is more criminal evidence and medical examinations. Next we also can see the historical passport of China.
Then the next part of the photos, I don’t know whether I can put them on the video/article but anyway I decided to try to do it because most of them are about contraband and some of them also are the illegal things. I will put the photos in the video/articles and I hope the photos can be passed and I can upload the video/article successfully. But I decided not to explain the details.
5. Knives and Air-guns-3F
The next part is about knives and airguns. Besides the traditional knives, swords and sabers, some cold weapons have a very special look from the small knives to the big knives. Then there are not only many knives, but also the crossbows that appear here and of course the other important character, the airguns also are here. It seems that the air pistols are the CO2 powered gun and their projectiles are not the bbs but the bigger iron balls. So I think the long airguns may be similar with the air pistols, CO2 powered and can shoot iron balls. Additionally, there is a very special gun because this is seemingly a homemade real gun and it also is a long gun. I don’t know if it is a rifled gun, but according to the bolt, I think it probably is a gunpowder gun. The corresponding bullet bag is also shown there. But unfortunately, I didn’t see the bullets that were shown together.
二层
6. Traffic History of Shanghai-2F
Ok, the next gallery is about the traffic history of Shanghai city. Besides the most iconic and classic vehicles, there are even very rare driving license collections from the 1930s. But very surprisingly I noticed that this is a bicycle riding license.
Then, there is a wall that shows the development of the car plates of Shanghai City. After watching this car plate wall, the rest is about the scenes of Shanghai after the 1950s. Here we can see many gears and uniforms for the traffic policemen. Among the collections, I suddenly find a very old-school vest, which was even made from bamboo in order to make cooling for the policemen standing on the street in Summer. I think maybe this kind of bamboo vest also was used in the 1940s, 1930s or even earlier.
7. Prison-2F
The next content of the gallery's vibe is a little bit more horrible. Because this is prison and the corresponding devices show. The oldest handcuffs were from the late part of the Qing Dynasty. There are even some devices that we only can see in TV series or films and this is cangue（枷）. After seeing the prison devices, the other collections and the prison scenes are in the modern time, not only in around the 1940s, but also in around the 1980s. In the last part of this gallery we can see the logo of this museum and the symbol of police nowadays.
8. More Historical Weapons-2F
The last gallery is about the history of the police. But I find that there are not only the history documents or some other collections, but also still many historical weapons. If we talk about the police system of Shanghai city, we must talk about the first modern police system that was built by the Shanghai International Settlement more than 150 years ago. Here we can see many historical collections, like the flag of the Shanghai Municipality before World War I, many vintage whistles, the International Settlement border sign, historical diary, a vintage printer and many the name board of the Shanghai police, etc.
Then the next part of this gallery is the coolest part I think. The first three historical rifles were the guns of the river gang, it should be the old river pirates. According to the features of the rifles, because there is a cover on the bolt and there are 2 characters nine and seven on the rifle that was put at the very bottom place, we can basically know this is a Type 97 sniper rifle. The safety of the middle rifle has a very obvious mauser safety feature and the stock also has some clues that can tell us the name of this rifle, so basically I think this is a Mauser Standardmodell. In China the localized version of this Mauser rifle was the very famous Chinese rifle in the 1930s and the WW2, which was called Zhōng Zhèng Shì 中正式 or Type 24 rifle. However, I still don’t know which firearm is on the top place. I think it’s probably a single shot rifle or maybe a shotgun.
Next, this is a very cool book. Because the inside part has been removed then it has a space to hide a pistol or other small weapon and maybe it was used by a spy. On the next side, this pistol should be a m1911 pistol. The rusted spots are seemingly telling us the legendary old story. Based on the nameplate, this gun was owned by Liu Quande (刘全德). This man was a very famous spy in history and was known for his skilled shooting. Then, besides firearms, there also are 2 nice and very fine swords. With the time going, we finally see the last collection on this trip.
This pistol, I think probably everyone can know it since its very iconic look, so this is a Mauser pistol and here even is a Mauser logo as well and at the same time, this is not a common version. There are 2 important points. The first one, there is a fire selector switch. The second point is that this Mauser can change magazines. So this is probably the Mauser M712. Another feature is that this pistol was put in a violin box so this is probably a spy gear as well.
9. End of the Trip
Ok, when going out the last gallery, finally coming back to the lobby. At this moment, I finally find there are many very cute toy bears and they have police uniforms. And also there are some plastic toy guns.
outro
On this trip, I have seen many interesting things and of course I also have a disappointing point that several months or years ago, I found there was a traditional Japanese matchlock collection on a photo of the internet. But this time I didn’t find it. And I found that the English translation of name plates and description also is not really much. But anyway this was indeed an amazing trip. So this is today’s video/article and thank you for watching. Hope you can like this video/article. Have a good day. See you next time. Bye!
https://x.com/tihysh1025/status/1376073978406531072?s=19
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