An art-themed cruise boat makes waves on the Huangpu River
2025-07-09 to 2025-07-31
2025-07-09 to 2025-07-31
The riverside Glass Hall is illuminated with the works of the masters.
A new exhibition-themed cruise boat – dubbed "Star of Shanghai–MAP Orsay Cruise" – has been sailing nightly on the Huangpu River.
The themed cruise is part of the exhibition "Paths to Modernity: Masterpieces from the Musée d'Orsay, Paris," currently on display at the Museum of Art Pudong, and will run until October 12. However, the cruise experience will conclude on July 31.
The exhibition at MAP is the largest ever organized by the Musée d'Orsay in China, showcasing approximately 100 masterpieces of French art from the 1840s to the early 20th century. The works on display span various movements, including Academicism, Realism, Naturalism, Impressionism, Neo-Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, and the Nabis.
Featured artists in the exhibition include Vincent van Gogh, Claude Monet, Jean-François Millet, Paul Cézanne, Paul Gauguin, Édouard Manet, Edgar Degas, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Gustave Courbet and Georges Seurat.
The interior of the cruise boat
The boat evokes the sensation of a curated art gallery, yet it contains no physical artworks – no canvases, no sculptures, no installations. Instead, a collection of 3D photo installations that mimic these masterpieces, along with traditional plaster sculptures and stairs transformed into iconic artwork settings, offers visitors an immersive experience.
Weekend sailings feature artists dressed as iconic art figures from classic paintings to take visitors on a magical, time-traveling art journey.
But the true centerpiece lies ahead.
As the cruise approaches the museum waterfront at the end of the 45-minute trip, the giant riverside Glass Hall of the museum illuminates at a distance with the artworks of Van Gogh, Monet, Millet, and Degas on the screen, turning the journey itself into a living narrative. The displays shimmer across the surface of the water.
At night, the Glass Hall appears as a massive canvas, reviving 19th-century French art with the Oriental Pearl Tower's glow and the starlight of the ships on the Huangpu River.
Book your "Star of Shanghai – MAP Orsay Cruise" tickets on WeChat "东方明珠" and the Ctrip official channels.
If you go
Date: Through July 31
Venue: Oriental Pearl TV Tower Quay 东方明珠游船码头
Address: 2852 Binjiang Avenue, near Fenghe Road 滨江大道2852号,沿江近丰和路
Admission: 160 yuan