Mu Xin in New York in 1988. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Located on a pond, the museum comes across as elegant as Mu's writings and artwork.

"Wind, water and a bridge" was what Mu said when he saw the initial plan of the museum. That was about five years ago, when his health was failing, says Lin Bing, who worked on the museum's architecture design.

The museum was built as a modern art venue by using elements of house design that were popular in water towns in eastern China in ancient times.

Mu left about 600 paintings and more than 1,000 manuscripts of his books and poetry. On show at the new museum are some 100 paintings and 50 manuscripts, including some from his time in a Shanghai jail, where he was incarcerated for 18 months during the "cultural revolution" (1966-76).

Mu wrote about 650,000 words in small characters on paper during his imprisonment in Shanghai since 1971. Titled Prison Notes, the scripts were first displayed in the US during one of his exhibition tours in 2001.