Exhibits include animatronic dinosaurs, fossils, a rusting aquarium and an enormous taxidermy collection. Free.
Beijing Natural History Museum 北京自然博物馆
- Temple of Heaven 天坛
- 126 Tianqiao Nandajie (near the west gate of Temple of Heaven), Chongwen District
- 崇文区天桥南大街126号
- Tue-Sun 9am-5pm (last ticket 4pm)
- 6702 4431, 6702 3096
Reviews of this listing
free, not very well maintained and information in chinese
Review of: Beijing Natural History Museum
Just took my 6 year old last week as he loves dinosaurs and heard of the collection in the museum. It's free to go in, but the website says to call and book the tickets. I got a chinese friend to help book it, which she did over the internet. There was no crowd on a Friday but apparently the tickets on Saturday and SUnday were fully given out.
The first thing that put me off was, the minute you enter, they direct you to a 'free' souvenier from the museum, i.e. a small photo keychain of a photo taken of you with some dino bones in the background. However some purchase was required at the end of the day which way why most people just walked away.
I also suspect some of the so called fossils and bones may not be real as they allowed these items to be touched by visitors. Some were in glass enclosures but a lot were not. Most explanation are in Chinese, so bring a chinese friend/tutor etc. Most of the interactive displays were not maintained properly and hence not working.
There was a paid section where they were having a display of dinosaur mummies. To enter this section, had to pay RMB 20 for adults, kids below 1.2m is free. I felt this section was worth it, as I was wondering what a dinosaur mummy was. You need chinese to be able to read the information of the exhibit.
Other than that, the other sections contained a lot of stuffed animals or fake ones and very badly preserved specimens in jars.
We did spend about 2 hours covering 3 floors altogether, so maybe 5-6 year old kids would enjoy a trip there.
