The ITTF Museum, which was originally housed at the ITTF Headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland, made its star-studded opening with ITTF President Thomas WEIKERT, Deputy President Khalil AL-MOHANNADI and ITTF Executive Committee members SHI Zhihao and Masahiro MAEHARA, together with ITTF Honorary President XU Yinsheng, ITTF CEO Steve Dainton and Museum curator Chuck Hoey as well as Vice Mayor of Shanghai WENG Tiehui. Famous World Table Tennis Champions LI Furong, ZHANG Yining, WANG Liqin, and LI Xiaoxia were also presented to grace the ceremony.
Upon the opening of the museum, ITTF President Thomas WEIKERT shared “It’s a great honour to be here at the Opening Ceremony of the ITTF and China Table Tennis Museum, I truly wish the museum could be a new window for promoting table tennis culture and inheriting table tennis spirit. China has made great contributions to our sport, hence we decided to move our ITTF Museum from Lausanne to Shanghai, where we believe it will bring more opportunities and benefits in showcasing our sport.”
“The ITTF is pleased to see the museum embrace visitors from all over the world with a new appearance, and we will continue to give maximum support including future world exhibitions, an ITTF documentation center and ITTF liaison center, making it more comprehensive and professional. Meanwhile, the ITTF will donate items and documents to the museum after each World Championships and World Cups.”
Home to over 8,000 table tennis exhibits, the ITTF Museum houses the most extensive range of table tennis items, detailing the past century of development in the sport, and showcases exclusive exhibits such as the first pair of table tennis rackets and items from past Champions, including shirt from DENG Yaping and sneakers from ZHANG Jike.
ITTF Museum curator Chuck HOEY stated “I congratulate the Shanghai University of Sport and the museum team for all their hard work to create one of the world’s finest sport museums. The exhibits are designed to a high standard, enhanced by modern museum technology. I am personally very happy that the museum is here in Shanghai, where many more millions will be able to enjoy the history of our great sport. As Honorary Curator I continue to search for special historical treasures from around the world to further enhance this spectacular museum.”
The Museum features several sections across four floors, including exhibitions galleries, Hall of Fame, a 3D movie theatre as well as a multimedia interactive zone where visitors can play against World Champions using VR technology in the museum. Talks with World Champions, table tennis experts and table tennis stars will also be held at the museum from time to time.
The Museum is located at 796 Jumen Road, Huangpu District, Shanghai, China, and opens from 9am to 5pm from Tuesday to Sunday, with last admissions at 4pm.