Chongqing- Dinosaurs, Pandas, and the birth of our planet are just some of the things you can see and experience in one of China’s top museums. Whether you’re a fan of history like us, or just curious about our planet’s past, today’s episode will take you to a very special location, where you can find all your answers.

Back ground and history

The history of Chongqing Natural Museum can be traced back to 1930, located at the feet of Jinyun Mountain, this is one of China first-class museums. This large museum takes up 30,000 square meters and consists of six permanent exhibitions and one special exhibition. The museum contains more than 120.000 specimens including plants, animal fossils, insects, and rocks and minerals. You can see everything from insects to the biggest dinosaurs. The museum is staffed by a high number of scientific staff, conducting research, educational projects and activities, this is all included in the mission of the museum to display the evolution of the earth and life and biodiversity, as well as the natural history of Chongqing.

Main attractions

Chongqing Natural History Museum holds exhibitions including Earth Mystery, Life Stream, Dinosaur World, Animal Planet, Ecological Homeland, Landscape Metropolis, Special Panda Exhibition.

Earth Mystery 

Earth Mystery Exhibition lets you study the Earth’s external and internal structure. You can learn about the mechanics of plate tectonics and the forming of volcanoes. The exhibition also highlights material compositions, minerals, and natural resources. Finally, the exhibition shows our efforts to travel beyond the confines of our own planet, into space.

Dinosaur world

Also nicknamed the City on the back of Dinosaurs, Chongqing has a large number of dinosaur fossils and relics. The Dinosaur World Exhibition lets you see massive skeletons, footprints and eggs, and habitat restorations. Have a walk around and get the full picture of these magnificent creatures who ruled our planet for 160 million years.

Animal Planet

The animal Exhibition displays beautiful nature landscapes and animal specimens from different continents. The Wild animal kingdom of Africa, the deep rainforests of Asia, Kangaroos from Australia, and polar bears and penguins from the poles. In this exhibition, you can get a glimpse of animals from all over the world. Many of the specimens here, were donated by Mr. Kenneth Behring to create the animal planet we see here today.

Landscape Metropolis

The Landscape Metropolis Exhibition shows the charming natural history of Chongqing, a metropolis among the mountains and Yangtze River. The natural changes in the environment have created a unique landscape in Chongqing with Karsts, Gorges, and rich natural resources. Numerous historic sites have been found along the Yangtze River and the Three Gorges remains an important gateway to search evidence of human evolution.

Life Stream

The Life Stream Exhibition showcases the evolution of life going back 4 billion years. From the birth of life to marine invertebrates, the Ordovician Marine family, to vertebrates, fish, dinosaurs all the way through to the origin of Homo Sapiens. Through this exhibition, you’ll surely appreciate the power of nature and the resilience of life.

Special Panda Exhibition

For Panda lovers the special Panda exhibition can satisfy your curiosity about these cute bears to a large extent. Here you can not only see the panda samples but what’s more interesting is that you can learn more about the evolution story of the panda and how they are surviving today.

How to get to Chongqing Natural History Museum

The most cost-effective way of getting to the Natural History Museum is using the Chongqing CRT system. From the city center hop on line six to Zhuangyuanbei station in Beibei district and from there you can either walk, take a bus or hail a taxi to take you the rest of the way to the museum itself. Taking the CRT will take about 40-60 minutes from the city center, but may still be faster than taking a car directly, depending on the traffic conditions. The museums is open every day except for Mondays and national holidays. 

Address: No.398, Jinhua Road, Beibei District, Chongqing, China.