Wang Xiaojia's museum, called Shanghai 1937, displays a variety of things that showcase the golden days of old Shanghai. Photos by Gao Erqiang / China Daily

On a wall of the museum are a dozen wooden doors she salvaged from a bulldozer. "I was passing by a construction site and saw workers were ready to demolish the houses. I cried out loudly to stop them and said I would take the wooden doors," she recalls.

"The doors are no more than 100 years old. They might not be that valuable for antique dealers but they are precious to me," she says. "Look at those lines and colors, they were sculpted by time."

She also has two razors she collected from an old man whose grandfather received them from American soldiers, in exchange for food, in the 1940s, when Shanghai was a World War II battlefield.

Most exhibits are tradable except for a few personal items. Wang cherishes the pianos she has collected the most. The oldest one is an antique Robinson piano dating back to the 1870s that was used in a religious school. The piano keys are made of ivory.

A Montrie piano was left by Wang's grandmother. The brand, created by the British and produced in Shanghai, was very popular in the 1930s. She also has a Nieer piano, a Chinese produced piano from the 1950s. The instrument is simple, and was made without a cover because there was scant access to materials in that era. She also has a mini-piano Wang played when she was only a kid.