Evolucao da carga tributaria brasileira - estudo do Inst. Br. de Planejamento Tributario

Volto ao assunto já objeto de um post ainda recentemente, por julgá-lo suficientemente importante, e grave, para merecer duas postagens seguidas, e continuar chamando a atenção de todos para uma realidade inelutável. A continuar neste ritmo, é inevitável que a carga tributária brasileira ultrapasse dois quintos do PIB, inclusive em função da crise fiscal que se desenha no horizonte. Quando as receitas foram insuficientes -- elas já são -- e quando ficar ainda mais difícil para emitir mais dinheiro ou mais bônus da dívida pública, não tenham nenhuma dúvida de que o governo -- sobretudo se ainda for o governo dos companheiros, mas os tucanos e socialistas tampouco ficariam atrás -- não vai hesitar eu aumentar a carga tributária, de uma maneira ou de outra, ou seja, ou autorizado pelo parlamento na criação de novos e expansão dos atuais impostos, taxas e contribuições, ou de forma compulsória, mediante expedientes diversos por parte desse órgão fascista que é a Receita Federal.
Não tenho nenhuma dúvida quanto a isso, e apenas posso lamentar que o Estado esteja sufocando os brasileiros e as empresas brasileiras (e estrangeiras estabelecidas no Brasil) sob o peso de uma das maiores cargas fiscais do planeta, sem contrapartidas visíveis, legítimas, necessárias.
Estamos já no âmago de nossa estagnação, e o cenário vai continuar por ausência absoluta de estadistas à altura dos desafios brasileiros.
Paulo Roberto de Almeida

Carga tributária brasileira é quase o dobro da média dos BRICS

De acordo com estudo do IBPT, Brasil deverá encerrar 2013 com carga tributária de 36,42% do PIB, pouco superior a 2012

Com a previsão de fechar este ano com carga tributária de 36,42% do seu Produto Interno Bruto - PIB, o Brasil ocupa a última posição entre os BRICS, com relação à carga tributária, segundo estimativa do Instituto Brasileiro de planejamento e Tributação – IBPT. Os demais países do bloco possuem as seguintes cargas tributárias: Rússia, 23%; Índia, 13%; China, 20% e África do Sul, 18%. A média desse percentual entre os BRICS é de 22%, mas, ao excluir o Brasil, cai para 18,5%. Sozinho, o Brasil apresenta quase o dobro da média de carga tributária dos demais países que fazem parte do bloco. O estudo"Evolução da Carga Tributária brasileira e previsão para 2013", divulgado pelo IBPT nesta quarta-feira, 18, está disponível no site www.ibpt.org.br.

Para o presidente do Conselho Superior e coordenador de estudos do IBPT, Gilberto Luiz do Amaral, “os constantes aumentos da carga tributária brasileira deixam bem clara a dificuldade que o Brasil tem de expandir o seu comércio exterior e também de incentivar a produção nacional. Competir no mundo globalizado com uma carga tributária tão alta é o mesmo que colocar um lutador de sumô para disputar os 100 metros rasos em uma olimpíada”, compara o tributarista.

Para concluir o estudo, o IBPT levou em consideração a arrecadação até o mês de novembro de 2013 e o PIB do 3º trimestre do mesmo ano. O Instituto estima um leve aumento da carga tributária em relação a 2012, quando o percentual foi de 36,37% do PIB. O estudo evidencia, ainda, o crescimento da carga tributária ao longo dos governos nos últimos 27 anos, desde o primeiro ano da gestão de José Sarney, em 1986, quando este percentual equivalia a 22% do PIB nacional, até o terceiro ano da administração de Dilma Rousseff.

Clique aqui e faça o download do estudo na íntegra.

Edward Snowden: entre o Estado e o povo americano, escolheu este - entrevista ao Washington Post

WorldViews

Edward Snowden, American nationalist

• BY MAX FISHER

• December 24 at 11:25 am

Edward Snowden (Guardian/Glenn Greenwald/Laura Poitras)

"If I defected at all," former NSA contractor Edward Snowden told The Washington Post's Barton Gellman in an interview in Moscow, "I defected from the government to the public."

Snowden returned several times to this distinction, between the U.S. government and its public, to argue that if he had worked against the former, it was only in service of the latter and the higher ideals it represents. On its face, this is a reasonable position and certainly consistent with how Snowden has framed his decision to leak U.S. secrets to the world.

At a deeper level, though, Snowden's language and his description of his mission echo a worldview that is unique neither to him nor even to Americans. These ideas, that the government has strayed far enough from the public interest that it must be brought back into check, and more fundamentally that a person can and perhaps should be loyal to the nation over its government, is a worldview that in any other national context we would call nationalism.

Leaks of the NSA's surveillance programs by Snowden, which the Obama administration has at times portrayed as traitorous, were actually, in Snowden's telling, acts of patriotic loyalty -- something that he suggests administration officials can't see because they themselves have lost that sense of loyalty.

He said of his nondisclosure agreement with the NSA: "The oath of allegiance is not an oath of secrecy.... That is an oath to the Constitution. That is the oath that I kept that [NSA chief] Keith Alexander and [Director of National Intelligence] James Clapper did not."

For a nationalist, loyalty to the abstract ideal of the nation -- personified by "the people" or "the public," or in the U.S. context by the Constitution -- transcends all else. Snowden's worldview seems to fit this idea perfectly. In working against U.S. government programs, he seems to argue, he is both serving a higher fealty to the nation and helping its government to return to the path from which it's strayed.

“I am not trying to bring down the NSA, I am working to improve the NSA,” he told Gellman. “I am still working for the NSA right now. They are the only ones who don’t realize it.”

In the nationalist's worldview, when a government strays from its primary duty of serving the nation, it becomes not just justifiable but near compulsory to challenge that government on behalf of the nation. Working against the government, in this view, isn't an act of treachery, but is in fact the highest level of patriotism, for it demonstrates an allegiance to the nation itself and calls attention to the enemies within.

Nationalist movements like these are typically right-wing, such as in the streets and the social networks of contemporary China or in much of 1980s Latin America. But not always. The Egyptian protesters who toppled President Hosni Mubarak in February 2011, for example, could be called left-wing nationalists, having decried Mubarak for failing both liberal values and the national ideal of the Egyptian nation. So it would not be outlandish for Snowden to be both a left-leaning libertarian and a nationalist.

Snowden positions himself, in this interview, as working on behalf of the nation rather than on behalf of -- and, perhaps, in opposition to -- the government. This is a defining feature of many a nationalist movement, this idea that the government no longer truly represents the nation (used interchangeably in the United States with "the people") and must thus be challenged from the outside.

It's also potentially dangerous, as Snowden himself acknowledges when he admits he couldn't be sure if people would support his decisions. When one person can pick up the mantle of "the nation" to go outside or actively challenge democratic institutions, it risks undermining them. This doesn't mean that American democracy is going to collapse because Snowden broke protocol, of course. But it allows anyone to see actions against the government, against democratic institutions, as serving the nation; it allows anyone to see their beliefs and concerns as representing the greater interests of the country.

Snowden had an answer for this. “That whole question -- who elected you? -- inverts the model,” he said in the interview. “They elected me. The overseers.... [Congressman] Mike Rogers elected me when he kept these programs hidden.... The FISA court elected me when they decided to legislate from the bench on things that were far beyond the mandate of what that court was ever intended to do. The system failed comprehensively, and each level of oversight, each level of responsibility that should have addressed this, abdicated their responsibility.”

Nationalist movements have long used similar arguments: My actions against the state are compelled by the failures of the state to properly serve the nation. In far, far more extreme forms -- iterations so different from Snowden's case that I raise them only to illustrate the underlying ideological commonalities -- they've underpinned rebellions, or movements such as the 1930s Japanese military officers who would storm government offices with swords to protest their supposed failures to serve the higher national interests. Again, to be clear, Snowden has not gone anywhere near these lengths. But the parallels may help explain why some Americans, particularly those who serve in government, can seem so rankled by Snowden's claim to serve the national interest.

"No one has the right to usurp the constitutional system -- not the NSA in the name of 'national security,' and not Edward Snowden," Andrew Exum, who's worked in a defense-oriented think tank and previously in the Pentagon, wrote on Twitter in response to Snowden's interview. "History will remember Edward Snowden fondly because of the way he forced changes in the relationship between the state & its citizenry. But we can't have a country in which any Tom, Dick or Harry believes he can usurp the democratic system when he feels like it."

The question of who can claim to serve the nation is a particularly tricky one in this case because so much of the debate revolves around secret programs; Snowden had to first act against the government by releasing classified NSA documents before he could even begin to position those leaks as serving the nation.

On the one hand, as critics such as Exum note, we have a democratic system precisely to implement the national will. While Snowden's revelations have turned out to be generally popular among Americans, he didn't leak NSA secrets because he'd run a Gallup poll and determined that Americans would support him; he just decided that they probably would or should. And anybody could decide that. But, on the other hand, as Snowden's supporters would correctly note, Americans couldn't express a popular desire to rein in NSA bulk data collection because they didn't know it existed. It's a bit of a catch-22.

Snowden's nationalist flavor may be what makes him so polarizing, what makes him so admired by supporters and loathed by detractors. For Americans who share Snowden's view that he is acting on behalf of the nation, he's a nationalist hero -- and even if nobody calls him that, that's something that has always inspired great passion in people, particularly Americans.

But for Americans who disagree with this, who see Snowden as falsely claiming to represent the nation when he represents only his particular viewpoint, his actions are an insult and an ideological imposition. And that dichotomy speaks to the power and the danger of taking up the nationalist cause.

Max Fisher is the Post's foreign affairs blogger. He has a master's degree in security studies from Johns Hopkins University. Sign up for his daily newsletter here. Also, follow him on Twitter or Facebook.

Este dia na Historia: 1991, o fim da Uniao Sovietica - The New York Times

ON THIS DAY

On This Day: December 25

Updated December 25, 2013, 1:28 PM

On Dec. 25, 1991, Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev went on TV to announce his resignation as the eighth and final leader of a Communist superpower that had already gone out of existence.

Go to article »

Gorbachev, Last Soviet Leader, Resigns; U.S. Recognizes Republics' Independence

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Communist Flag Is Removed: Yeltsin Gets Nuclear Controls

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By FRANCIS X. CLINES

Special to The New York Times

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MOSCOW, Dec. 25 -- Mikhail S. Gorbachev, the trailblazer of the Soviet Union's retreat from the cold war and the spark for the democratic reforms that ended 70 years of Communist tyranny, told a weary, anxious nation tonight that he was resigning as President and closing out the union.

'I hereby discontinue my activities at the post of President of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics,' declared the 60-year-old politician, the last leader of a totalitarian empire that was undone across the six years and nine months of his stewardship.

Mr. Gorbachev made no attempt in his brief, leanly worded television address to mask his bitter regret and concern at being forced from office by the creation of the new Commonwealth of Independent States, composed of 11 former republics of the collapsed Soviet empire under the informal lead of President Boris N. Yeltsin of Russia.

'A New World'

Within hours of Mr. Gorbachev's resignation, Western and other nations began recognition of Russia and the other former republics.

'We're now living in a new world,' Mr. Gorbachev declared in recognizing the rich history of his tenure. 'An end has been put to the cold war and to the arms race, as well as to the mad militarization of the country, which has crippled our economy, public attitudes and morals. The threat of nuclear war has been removed.' [A transcript of Mr. Gorbachev's speech and excerpts from interviews with Mr. Gorbachev and Mr. Yeltsin are on pages A12 and A13.]

Mr. Gorbachev's moment of farewell was stark. Kremlin guards were preparing to lower the red union flag for the last time. In minutes, Mr. Gorbachev would sign over the nuclear missile launching codes for safeguarding to Mr. Yeltsin, his rival and successor as the dominant politician of this agonized land.

Yeltsin's Assurance on Weapons

Earlier today, Mr. Yeltsin told his Russian Parliament that 'there will be only a single nuclear button, and other presidents will not possess it.'

But he said that to 'push it' requires the approval of himself and the leaders of Ukraine, Byelorussia and Kazakhstan, the four former republics that have strategic nuclear weapons on their soil.

'Of course, we think this button must never be used,' Mr. Yeltsin said.

Out in the night beyond the walled fortress as Mr. Gorbachev spoke, a disjointed people, freed from their decades of dictated misery, faced a frightening new course of shedding collectivism for the promises of individual enterprise. It is a course that remains a mystery for most of the commonwealth's 280 million people.

'I am very much concerned as I am leaving this post,' the union President told the people. 'However, I also have feelings of hope and faith in you, your wisdom and force of spirit. We are the heirs of a great civilization and it now depends on all and everyone whether or not this civilization will make a comeback to a new and decent living.'

Still Against Commonwealth

In departing, the Soviet leader took comfort in the world's supporting his singular achievements in nuclear disarmament. But even more, he firmly warned his people that they had not yet learned to use their newly won freedom and that it could be put at risk by the commonwealth, which he fought to the last.

'I am concerned about the fact that the people in this country are ceasing to become citizens of a great power and the consequences may be very difficult for all of us to deal with,' he declared, implicitly arguing that his union could have remained a superpower despite the cold war's end, which he helped engineer.

'We have paid with all our history and tragic experience for these democratic achievements,' Mr. Gorbachev said, assessing centuries of suffering across serfdom and revolution, 'and they are not to be abandoned whatever the circumstances, and whatever the pretext. Otherwise, all our hopes for the best will be buried.'

Mr. Gorbachev's stringent gaze and strong caution to the now dismembered nation were in contrast to the smiling ease displayed during this transition day by President Yeltsin, chief heir to this land's political and economic chaos.

'They Need Some Belief'

'The people here are weary of pessimism, and the share of pessimism is too much for the people to handle,' Mr. Yeltsin declared in an interview with CNN. 'Now they need some belief, finally.'

Mr. Yeltsin made a point in the interview of sending Christmas wishes to his listeners today as the West celebrated the holiday, although the Russian Orthodox Christmas is not until Jan. 7. Mr. Yeltsin also took care in addressing the outside world to stress that commonwealth leaders had agreed to fulfill the disarmament commitments made by Mr. Gorbachev.

'I don't want the international community to be worried about it,' President Yeltsin said, vowing that there would 'not be a single second after Gorbachev makes his resignation' that the missile codes would go astray.

The weapons are only one item in a long list of needed precautions that the commonwealth republics must attend to if they are to establish credibility in a decidedly skeptical world that has watched the Soviet Union reverse its totalitarian course and collapse in a matter of a few years.

Mr. Yeltsin is first among equals in the 11-member commonwealth. This is a very loose political association resorted to by the former Soviet republics because of their disenchantment with the very notion of union and their need, nonetheless, for some common arrangement that might ease the escape from post-Communist destitution.

The commonwealth members are free to decide their individual economic and political plans. But they are pledged to a common military command for joint defense needs and to certain economic denominators as well, including the hope of a resuscitated ruble as their common currency.

Russia has already taken the lead in economics as well as defense, with the giant republic of 149 million people bracing for Mr. Yeltsin's first steps toward free-market reform next week. Sweeping price rises are to be legalized on Jan. 2 as an end comes to much of the consumer-goods subsidies that Communism maintained to make its regime minimally palatable.

Mr. Yeltsin made a point in his CNN interview of expressing some displeasure at the limited amount of aid that has been extended by the outside world.

'There has been a lot of talk, but there has been no specific assistance,' he said, offering a small smile. He quickly offered an explanation that with the union collapsing for the last year, willing nations probably found no clear address to which to donate.

'Now everything is clear, and the addressees are known,' he said, beaming as if in invitation. 'And I think that this humanitarian aid will step up now.'

A Poke at Baker

He offered the same hint of mischief in dealing with the fact that Secretary of State James A. Baker 3d waited until he headed home from an initial visit before talking quite pessimistically of the commonwealth's chances.

'Mr. Baker, when he and I had a four-and-a-half-hour meeting here in Moscow, Mr. Baker never told me that,' Mr. Yeltsin said. 'So those who doubt as to the success of the commonwealth should beware and not be so pessimistic,' he advised. 'We are sick and tired of pessimism.'

In leaving, Mr. Gorbachev had no kind words in the televised speech for the commonwealth and never mentioned Mr. Yeltsin.

He reviewed his own campaign to preserve a drastically revised union. It would have accepted the sovereignty the republics gained after the hard-line Communist coup failed in August. This led to the fall of the Communist Party and, tonight, of the union's most prominent defender, Mr. Gorbachev.

'The policy prevailed of dismembering this country and disuniting the state, which is something I cannot subscribe to,' Mr. Gorbachev told the nation, his jaw set forward firmly in defeat as the presidential red union flag gleamed its last behind his right shoulder.

As Mr. Yeltsin deftly acquired the Moscow remnants of the union's powers and real estate across the last few weeks, the huge red union flag atop the Kremlin's domed Council of Ministers building had waved mainly as a symbol of Mr. Gorbachev's holdout resistance to the commonwealth.

The Flag Comes Down

The flag was lowered from its floodlit perch at 7:32 tonight. A muted moment of awe was shared by the few pedestrians crossing Red Square.

'Why are you laughing at Lenin?' a man, obviously inebriated against the winter cold, suddenly shouted in the square. He reeled near Lenin's tomb.

The mausoleum was dusky pink against the evergreen trees outside the Kremlin walls. Within, for all the sense of history wheeling in the night sky, the embalmed remains of the Communst patriarch still rested.

The drunk was instantly shushed by a passer-by who cautioned that 'foreigners' were watching and he should not embarrass the reborn Russia.

'Foreigners?' laughed another Muscovite. 'Who cares? They're the ones who are feeding us these days.'

In the Gorbachev era there were countless moments of floodlit crisis and emergency solutions hurriedly concocted and rammed through in the Kremlin. Previously, Mr. Gorbachev prevailed and often proved brilliant in his improvising. Tonight, though, he was the executive focus for the last time and he seemed brisk and businesslike, a man containing himself against defeat.

In an interview with CNN later, when asked about his plans, he said he would not comment now on the 'many proposals and offers' he had received. He said he would 'have to recover a little bit, relax, take a rest.'

'Respect' From Rival

'Today is a difficult day for Mikhail Gorbachev,' President Yeltsin said a few hours before the Soviet President resigned, when the Russian leader was invited to describe Mr. Gorbachev's main mistakes along the difficult road of reform.

'Because I have a lot of respect for him personally and we are trying to be civilized people and we are trying to make it into a civilized state today, I don't want to focus on these mistakes,' Mr. Yeltsin responded.

Companheiros "economicos" como fonte de inspiracao para colunas de economia - Alexandre Schwartsman

Além de nos divertir com suas tiradas absolutamente surrealistas em matéria de previsões econômicas, e de nos desesperar ao constatar seu absoluto despreparo para o cargo, o ministro da Fazenda também é um excelente auxiliar para quem precisa escrever sobre a economia brasileira, como é o caso do ex-diretor de Assuntos Internacionais do Banco Central, Alexandre Schwartsman.
Paulo Roberto de Almeida

Mao Visivel

25/12/2013 04:07:00

As mancadas do ministro

Alex

Parece que pego no pé (ou seria na “perna manca”?) do ministro da Fazenda, mas, asseguro, trata-se da mais pura verdade. Penso às vezes que não deveria ser assim, até por gratidão. Eu começo a me torturar sobre o tema de uma coluna assim que termino de escrever a anterior; é apenas a presença do ministro que alegra minh’alma com a certeza que, graças a ele, não me faltará assunto.

No caso, a contribuição ministerial para a análise desta semana é uma gema em estado bruto. Segundo ele, o desempenho sofrível da economia (aquele mesmo que ele não previu, contaminado por um otimismo de fazer o Dr. Pangloss enverdecer de inveja) se deve a “duas pernas mancas”: o escasso financiamento ao consumo e a fraqueza da economia internacional.

Isto mostra que, conforme o esperado, ele ainda não compreendeu a natureza da desaceleração da economia brasileira e que, portanto, continua tratando a doença com remédios errados. Diga-se, aliás, que este deve ser o principal motivo de sua internacionalmente reconhecida falta de pontaria nas previsões. Se o diagnóstico está equivocado, só com muita sorte a previsão poderia dar certo.

As ações de política econômica revelam – até mais do que as inúmeras entrevistas do ministro – que o governo atribui à insuficiência de demanda os números medíocres de crescimento observados desde 2011. De fato, medida após medida, o que observamos são novos estímulos ao consumo, restrições às importações e tentativas canhestras de ressuscitar o investimento com doses maciças de créditos subsidiados. Pouco, em contraste, tem sido feito no sentido de buscar aumentar a capacidade produtiva da economia, em particular no que se refere ao crescimento da produtividade.

No entanto, a um observador mais atento não há de ter escapado os sinais crescentes de dificuldades pelo lado da produção. A taxa de desemprego, por exemplo, segue nos níveis mais baixos de sua (curta) história, pouco abaixo de 5,5%, e o ritmo anual de geração de empregos, em que pese alguma desaceleração nos últimos meses, ainda supera a expansão da população em idade ativa.

Mais importante, as estimativas de aumento da produtividade permanecem muito baixas. Considerando, por exemplo, que nos 4 trimestres terminados em setembro deste ano o PIB aumentou 2,3% contra aumento de 1,6% do emprego, segundo a Pesquisa Mensal do Emprego, a produtividade, tomada ao pé da letra, teria crescido apenas 0,6% naquele período.

Uma estimativa mais caridosa, cujo foco é na tendência mais do que na observação de alguns poucos trimestres, sugere números um pouco maiores, na casa de 1% ao ano, mas, ainda assim, insuficientes para sustentar um ritmo de crescimento mais vigoroso do que o hoje observado.

Na verdade, visto que tanto a população em idade ativa quanto a produtividade parecem crescer em torno de 1% ao ano cada, qualquer crescimento muito superior a 2% ao ano requer queda adicional do desemprego, o que não era problema há alguns anos, mas hoje, em face da baixa taxa acima mencionada, passa a ser uma limitação relevante.

Ao perder isto de vista e insistir nas “pernas mancas” como motivos para nosso crescimento medíocre o governo produz uma política econômica, agora sim, capenga.

Estímulos à demanda, em particular pelo aumento do gasto público, quando a oferta se encontra restrita agravam nossos desequilíbrios. Do lado doméstico aceleram a inflação, contida apenas a golpes de controle de preços. Do lado externo se traduzem em elevação do déficit em conta corrente, que este ano deve ultrapassar US$ 80 bilhões (pouco menos do que 4% do PIB).

A política econômica hoje em vigor é perfeita para quem precisa escrever semanalmente sobre o assunto, mas incapaz de recolocar o país na rota do crescimento acelerado e sustentável. A mudança de rumos é imperativa, ainda que possa atrapalhar minha vida como colunista, sacrifício que encararia com satisfação.

(Publicado 18/Dez/2013)

Saudades de Shanghai - Best museums, segundo o TIme Out Shanghai

Eu sempre escrevo Shanghai, em lugar da versão aportuguesada Xangai, que não reflete a combinação de ideogramas do termo original.
Em todo caso, para rememorar os tempos em que vivi na cidade, coloco aqui uma informação sobre os melhores museus da cidade, segundo o Time Out Shanghai.
Paulo Roberto de Almeida

Shanghai's best museums

Our guide to the 14 must see museums in Shanghai

link: http://www.timeoutshanghai.com/features/Around_Town-Around_Town/7519/Shanghais-best-museums.html

Glass blowing lessons at the Shanghai Museum of Glass

First published on 9 Aug 2012. Updated on 18 Oct 2013.

Be a tourist in your own city as Time Out presents your guide to the best museums in town

14 Shanghai Natural History Museum

Yanan Dong Lu, Huangpu district, 5RMB
The Natural History Museum is one of Shanghai’s forgotten museums. Housed in a 1920s building (the city’s former cotton exchange), the museum’s three floors of exhibits have been largely neglected by both staff and visitors, though reports that the museum is set to move to new premises in Jingan Sculpture Park next year have seen a small increase in interest.

Until then, the current space provides an opportunity to experience a museum from yesteryear – exhibitions consist almost entirely of rows and rows of wood and glass cases filled with taxidermy and models.

Entering through a beautiful wood and tile-clad entrance hall, you’re greeted on the first floor by the 22-metre long skeleton of a giant Mamenchisaurus (a long-necked dinosaur from the late Jurassic Period), whose bones were discovered in Sichuan province. The rest of the first floor is given over to explaining the evolutionary processes that led to homo sapiens and, in a side room, two preserved Ming dynasty bodies discovered near Xietu Lu and Dapuqiao in the early 1990s.

English language captions are limited (both in quality and quantity) on the first floor, but disappear altogether on the second and third levels. Here, the animal kingdom is represented with preserved specimens and models ranging from butterflies to giant turtles. Alas, condensation on the cases, peeling plaster and stained floors are common.

The museum’s endless rows of display cases can feel repetitive, but it’s worth the 5RMB entry fee to see those dinosaur fossils looming among the fading period architecture. One to check out on a lunchbreak rather than plan a day around.

Must-see The Mamenchisaurus and the various dinosaur skeletons at its feet.

Shanghai Natural History Museum, 260 Yanan Dong Lu,near Jiangxi Lu.See full address details. 

13 Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Centre

People’s Square, Huangpu district, 30RMB
Much of the Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Centre can be skipped. Aside from the odd interactive ‘fly over’ of parts of the city and some interesting then and now photos, there are few exhibits that you can’t pass by.

Must-see The enormous scale model of the city on the third floor is the main reason to come here. Occupying almost the entire floor, the model is surrounded by visitors pointing excitedly to their homes (unless they live in the very outer reaches of Putuo or Minhang that is) and other familiar landmarks. The sheer scale of it all is worth the 30RMB entrance fee alone.

Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Centre, 100 People's Avenue, near Huanhe Lu. See full address details.

12 Shanghai Museum

People’s Square, Huangpu district, Free
Shanghai Museum has easily one of the most impressive collections of historical artifacts in the country. The trouble is, the sheer quantity of it is overwhelming. As important as they are, entire rooms given over to calligraphy or coins can be wearing for even the most ardent history buff.

Fortunately, the museum has been free since waiving its entry fee in 2008 and this allows for quick visits. Good for a few hours, but, ultimately, the Shanghai Museum proves that bigger isn’t always better.

Must-see The fourth floor’s collection of traditional ethnic minority costumes can feel a bit tokenistic following all the Han-dominated history below, but it also offers a refreshing burst of colour when you get tired of looking at yellowed scrolls.

Shanghai Museum, 201 People's Avenue, near Huangpi Bei Lu. See full address details.

11 Shanghai Municipal History Museum

Oriental Pearl Tower, Pudong, 35RMB
Another often overlooked attraction, the Shanghai Municipal History Museum in the base of the Oriental Pearl Tower provides a whistle-stop tour through ‘old Shanghai’ via an array of scale models and waxworks. Iin contrast to the numerous lifeless waxwork displays at museums across the city, here visitors are free to clamber into the mock street, shop and bar scenes for photo opportunities. fact, taking photos seems to be the main draw (there’s even a green screen room where you can have your picture superimposed onto old city scenes). The museum is fairly information-light, but the models of opium dens and courts keep things interesting for a few hours.

Must-see As impressive as the models of The Bund and Nanking Lu in the 1930s are, our favourite section is the walk-through area of neon-lit massage parlours and bathhouses from the same period, which show just how far Shanghai has come.

Shanghai Municipal History Museum, 1 Century Avenue, near Lujiazui Ring Road. See full address details.

10 Matchbox and Brand Museum

Changfeng Park, Putuo district, Free
Just around the corner from the Jackie Chan Museum – which we’re starting to doubt will ever open – the Matchbox and Brand Museum celebrates Shanghai’s business and advertising legacy with displays of classic ads, old packaging and, in particular, vintage matchboxes.

Shanghainese pride is on full display as collections of old biscuit cans, insect repellents and Shanghai lady posters chart the progress of the citys’s branding industry from the Qing dynasty to modern day. Along the way there are tributes to Shanghainese businessmen such as Yang Jichuan (the ‘King of the electric fans’) and Zhu Baosan (the ‘King of cooking oil’).

The building itself is worthy of note, too. One wall is decorated to look like a giant matchbox, while the entranceway is propped up by two enormous match pillars. The rolling grounds on the north bank of the Suzhou Creek (the museum is part of the creekside area’s significant redevelopment in recent years) also make for a pleasant stroll, as does the fantastic Changfeng Park just across the road.

Must-see The best exhibit is left until last. On the third floor, there’s a technicolour sea of matchboxes, arranged in rows by country and province that blur the line between art and commodity.

Matchbox and Brand Museum, 251 Daduhe Lu, near Yuanling Dong Lu.See full address details.

9 Shanghai Jewish Refugee Museum

Changyang Lu, Hongkou district, 50RMB
Between 1937 and 1941, Shanghai received over 25,000 Jewish refugees fleeing the Nazi regime in Europe. Most were housed in Hongkou district and this recently revamped museum set in the Ohel Moshe synagogue tells their story through photos, detailed captions and eyewitness accounts from former residents.

Understandably, it’s a quiet, somewhat solemn place, but the exhibits are clear and carefully arranged and the historical value of the building and its exhibition is hard to overestimate, especially given the destruction of numerous historical sites in the surrounding area in recent years.

Must-see Once you’ve finished touring the museum itself, head out onto the adjacent Zhoushan Lu. This beautiful street lined with terraced houses is one of the few places left in town where you’ll regularly find locals playing carrom, a raised table-top game which involves using snooker-like cues to shoot small pucks into pockets around the edges of the table.

Shanghai Jewish Refugee Museum, 62 Changyang Lu, near Zhoushan Lu.See full address details.

8 Chinese Imperial Examination System Museum

Nanda Jie, Jiading district, 20RMB
A museum about exams might not be the most exciting of prospects for an afternoon out, particularly when visiting involves a trip to Jiading district, but the Chinese Iimperial Examination System Museum, part of the Jiading Museum complex beside Huilongtan Park, is actually far more interesting than it may sound. True, the English language captions are limited (‘paper for cheating’, for example, does little to enhance your experience of looking at a Qing dynasty cheat sheet), but there are some interesting displays.

The Iimperial Examination System, which began in the Sui dynasty in 605AD and continued until 1905, is explored via the usual museum staples of waxworks, scale models and displays of various artifacts, mostly from the Qing dynasty. The central exhibition hall also features a section on the international influence of the Chinese Iimperial system and features a quote from an 1888 edition of The Westminster Review stating that China’s approach deserves ‘termless laudability’.

Must-see One of the main reasons to visit the museum is its setting. Housed in a Confucian temple, the grounds and gardens are almost as interesting to explore as the exhibits themselves.

The museum is at its best when the two combine – such as in the recreated outdoor examination cubicles where scholars would spend nine days in the hope of making the grade for the civil service.

Chinese Imperial Examination System Museum, 183 Nanda Lu, near Tacheng Lu. See full address details.

7 The Shanghai Gallery of Antique Music Boxes

Oriental Arts Centre, Pudong, 50RMB
One of the city’s many decidedly niche museums, this hidden room within the Oriental Art Centre has a surprisingly broad appeal. Guided tours are led through the small room and its fascinating range of mechanical music players and though the tours are in Chinese only, there’s plenty for non-Chinese speakers to enjoy.

The world’s oldest music box (a tiny gold object made in 1796) is here, as are music boxes made to look like birds in cages, music boxes operated by sitting on a chair and music boxes shaped like pistols. Most of the exhibits are Swiss-made and while a music box musuem may sound bizarre, you can’t help but marvel at the mechanical wizardry and skilled craftsmanship on show.

Must-see Towards the end of the tour, you’re given a demonstration of a remarkable moving sketch artist model, which is more like a mechanical puppet than the small trinket boxes that may come to mind.

Shanghai Gallery of Antique Music Boxes, 425 Dingxiang Lu, near Yingchun Lu. See full address details.

6 Shanghai Postal Museum

Bei Suzhou Lu, Hongkou district, Free
Housed in a beautiful 1920s building which was formerly the city’s China Post headquarters, the Shanghai Postal Museum is worth a visit to see the architecture alone. Particularly impressive is the cavernous central hall, which is filled with replicas of postal vehicles and features a model of China’s first regular air mail plane hanging from the ceiling.

Tracing the evolution of the postal service (from messages scrawled on tortoise shells in ancient times, to the present day), the exhibition within is informative rather than riveting. There are a few highlights along the way however, such as letters from the Postal Commissioner in 1911 venting his anger at posties’ unacceptable behaviour including cycling around town with their shirts unbuttoned, smoking on the job and delivering mail late. How times have changed.

Elsewhere, extensive collections of stamps and relics such as Qing dynasty post boxes can only divert your attention for so long, although the ‘Future Cinema’ provides a memorably bizarre opportunity to see how the people behind the museum believe the post will evolve.

Must-see The real reason the Shanghai Postal Museum is so high on our list is its tranquil rooftop garden. Perched atop the building is a small seating area and patio. Here, beside the museum’s baroque tower decorated with telecommunication cables and figures of Eros and Hermes, you can enjoy sweeping views down Suzhou Creek towards The Bund and over to Lujiazui. It’s one of the best free views in the city.

Shanghai Postal Museum, 276 Bei Suzhou Lu, near Sichuan Bei Lu. See full address details.

5 Shanghai Museum of Glass

Changjiang Xi Lu, Baoshan district, 20RMB
One of Shanghai’s newest museums, the Shanghai Museum of Glass is also one of the most impressive. The exhibitions of ancient and contemporary glassworks on display include some stunning specimens, but it’s the building itself that has made it one of our favourite museums in town.

Set in a huge former glass-making factory, the museum’s interior is like a cross between a house of mirrors and David Bowie’s lair in Labyrinth. Walking through the museum’s numerous rooms feels disorientatingly like you’re inside one of the artistic glass objects that it displays. The building is a work of art in itself.

Must-see In a large, open industrial space at one end of the museum, regular glass-blowing classes are held. You’ll need to book ahead and it’ll cost you 300RMB/30 minutes, but it’s a unique experience.

Shanghai Museum of Glass, 685 Changjiang Xi Lu, near Gangsi Lu. See full address details.

4 Shanghai Museum of Public Security

Ruijin Nan Lu, Xuhui district, Free
Few of the captions feature any English here, but plenty of the exhibits, such as the row of old police vehicles that line the entranceway or displays of small spy cameras, are enjoyable nonetheless. Following the development of the city’s beloved public security forces since they were founded back in 1854, the museum is certainly worth a few hours of your time.

Rows of guns and knives sit beside models of Tilanqiao Prison (built in 1902 and still operating in Hongkou district) and waxworks of various foreign concession police officers. It’s perhaps not the most child-friendly display, but it is an interesting one for adults.

On the third floor, things get really grown up. Here, the ‘Criminal Iinvestigation’ section features 1,000 exhibits detailing various murder cases and some of the evidence. Displays include grisly items such as a human skull impaled with a scissor blade along with graphic photos from murder scenes including that of a man axed repeatedly over the head.

Must-see Also on the third floor, the collection of weaponry – from knuckle dusters, to sawn-off shotguns and even pistols carried by Sun Yat-sen – is oddly fascinating.

Shanghai Museum of Public Security, 518 Ruijin Nan Lu, near Xietu Lu. See full address details.

3 Shanghai Animation Museum

Zhangjiang Hi-Technology Park, Pudong, 30RMB
Bringing together Chinese animation classics such as Shanghainese waif San Mao and Western favourites such as Jessica Rabbit (pictured above), the Shanghai Animation Museum is a kid-friendly museum that can easily occupy an afternoon.

Both Western and Chinese animation histories are retold with opportunities to watch early cartoons such as Steamboat Willie, the first animation film with sound. Some of the more static exhibits and the frustrating amount of displays at adult eye-level may mean certain areas need to be skipped if you’re with very young children, but generally there’s plenty to keep them entertained. We recommend you skip the 3D cinema on the third floor however.

Must-see The second floor features the most interactive section of the museum. Sand drawing and cartoon tracing activities are available, but the real highlight is the clay moulding station where (from as little as 10RMB) you can recreate cartoon characters in ceramics.

Shanghai Animation Museum, 69 Zhangjiang Lu, near Guoshoujing Lu. See full address details.

2 Shanghai Science and Technology Museum

Century Avenue, Pudong, 60RMB
Although in some of the less interactive areas, Shanghai’s mammoth Science and Technology Museum can feel a touch dated, in general it’s one of the best museums in the city and provides easily enough entertainment to fill an afternoon.

Immediately inside the second floor entrance, you’ll find the Animal World. The main exhibit in this section consists of a large, open room full of stuffed and model animals with a seeming emphasis on the predatory nature of the animal kingdom (growling, screeching attacks are found among each region’s display). Video screens, informative bi-lingual captions and binoculars are helpful touches and, aside from a pathetic attempt to portray Australasia’s animal world (which appears to be more of an animal hamlet here), the exhibition is generally well done.

Once through this first room, you’re offered a trek through the rainforests of Yunnan, complete with dozens of plastic trees, running waterfalls, rickety wooden bridges and some oversized insects. Dotted throughout is the occasional live specimen, but Animal World is very much dominated by models and taxidermy.

After this, things get much more interactive. Iin the east wing, the World of Robots offers the opportunity to compete against machines at Go and archery. On the next floor up, the Space Navigation area features a ‘tetraxon balancer’ where you’re strapped into a spherical machine and spun upside down at various angles. Around the corner is an opportunity to test the Coriolis effect by shooting balls at a target as you rotate in a giant, boat-like craft, while next door in the Human and Health area, you can take penalties against a computerised goalkeeper and ride through the human body in a piece of fruit car.

Skip the central Iwerks 4D cinema, which is a let down considering the extra 30RMB entry fee. Otherwise, this remains one of the best museums in the city.

Must-see The easily missed Light of Wisdom area, on the first floor, is like a big playground with all manner of fun games and ‘experiments’. Specially weighted bicycles that help you ‘dance on a rope’, games controlled by your concentration and exhibits for you to shoot at, hit and ride, make for an entertaining section.

Shanghai Science and Technology Museum, 2000 Century Avenue, near Jinxiu Lu. See full address details.

1 Shanghai Propaganda Poster Art Centre

Huashan Lu, Xuhui district, 20RMB
Yang Peiming, founder of the Shanghai Propaganda Poster Art Centre, acquired his first ever propaganda poster by mistake. ‘Iin 1995, a friend asked me to get some Shanghai lady posters,’ he says, ‘but ended up with the wrong kind of poster.’ Since then, Yang has collected over 5,000 Chinese propaganda posters from between 1949 and 1979. Having displayed them in the hidden basement of a nondescript Huashan Lu tower block since 2008, Yang was finally given official recognition for the museum earlier this year.

The collection, which Yang prefers to view from an art point of view rather than from a political one, features numerous examples of vitriolic, xenophobic messages alongside Communist slogans and colourful displays of China’s power and technological advancement. There is also a collection of the Shanghai lady posters that Yang was originally supposed to buy over 15 years ago.

Yang, who will happily guide visitors around the basement rooms in English and Chinese, has been asked to provide works from his collection for international galleries such as the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and says that ‘no one in the world has as big a collection as Ii do.’ Iit’s a fascinating, important collection and an absolute must-see museum.

Must-see Tucked away in one corner toward the back of Yang’s basement exhibition area is a small room sectioned off from the main hall. Displayed here are some of the most sensitive materials in Yang’s possession – hand-written and painted denunciation notices that were posted on university campuses during the height of the Cultural Revolution.

Shanghai Propaganda Poster Art Centre, 868 Huashang Lu, near Zhenning Lu. See full address details.