If you’re like me and can never get enough of museums, you’ll want to check out museums no matter what kind in different countries as well. We went to the Shanghai Natural History Museum because we figured there would be animals and information displayed about China and there was however we went on a day where we thought there wouldn’t be a lot of people going because it was during the week.. but boy were we wrong… but we had fun..
Adress:
Shanghai Natural History Museum
No.260 Yan’an Dong Road, Huangpu District, Shanghai 200003, China
Chinese:
上海自然博物馆
200003黄浦区延安东路260号
Open time：Tuesday to Sunday 9:00 – 17:15
Close time：Monday (except national holidays), new year’s Eve, the first, the second
Booking time：8:45 – 16:30 (national statutory holidays 16:30 – 9:00)
Such as adjustments or other arrangements, notice.
The Museum
This museum was opened up in 2015 located within Jing’an Sculpture Park in the City of Shanghai and has since calculated for an annual total of 800,000 to 1.2 million visitors. The design of the Museum building is inspired by the structure of a snail’s shell. Layers of green plants spiral upwards, rising from the interior of the park, and the building, which gives the impression of being both stable and dynamic, is just like a green snail. The design is human-centered, and incorporates a landscape garden style using natural ecology methods. The 160 species of plants in the central landscape area are distributed in islands, and like primeval forest combine with five lakes of different sizes to make a landscape garden which pays conscious tribute to China’s architectural traditions. The layers of greenery used in the structure have an excellent insulating effect, saving up to 240,000 kWh per year. The “green snail” itself also boasts 7 major green features: energy-saving and environmental construction, energy-saving air-conditioning, comprehensive use of solar energy, air distribution in the large public areas, natural optical wave-guide technology, a rainwater collection system, and an environmental and energy-saving central management platform. These seven systematic features along with the overall structure qualify the Museum as a “green building” under the national Green Building Evaluation Standards star system.
My Trip
I don’t remember the day we went but it was on a weekday, we hoped it would be more quiet since october holidays should’ve been over in China. But to our surprise it was absolutely packed with people.
What was really good is that first you have to buy your ticket at the booth, then get in line and have your belongings checked because of safety then as soon as you’re inside you’re free to pick whichever floor you’d like to go first. There are five floors you can pick from. F2 to B2 (one is B2M, which is between B1 and B2).
Their exhibition plan is as following
Mystery of Origins is situated on L2, where you can get a general idea of how the universe came into existence and see meteorites.
River of Life is located on L1, where you can see a lot of taxidermy animals and bones. It’s a winding path down until you come the age of the dinosaurs where they have a couple animatronic sets.
On B1 are the Way of Evolution and the Next Wave. Of course the way of Evolution is fossils as far as the eye can see and how we came from small cells to aquatic animals to finally humans.
Shanghai Story is located on B2M and offers you a look in past, present and possibly future looks of Shanghai life and wildlife. Get yer ducks in a row here.
On B2 are Treasures on Earth, Colorful Lives, Survival Wisdom, Mankind and Geology and Diverse Ecologies.
Think minerals and Gold.. all in all beautiful rocks in all shapes, sizes and colours. Survival wisdom is how many animals have cool tricks on how to survive, how to hunt and how they breed. It’s a great way to learn a lot of these facts about animals.
Opinion
7/10
The building as absolutely amazing, I like the architecture and how the entire museum is laid out. The collection is large and the complex is clean. I truly enjoyed the 2 hours I spend there and loved looking at all the exhibitions. However… some of the taxidermy is…more than horrific but the extent of the collection truly makes up for that. However as it was so busy you could almost walk on heads, we just kind of… drifted to where there weren’t too many people and work our way like that, this made us rush a bit and we couldn’t really see the full collection and it was kind of a bummer.
They have A LOT of of bones and taxidermy even though as you can see they’re not really great at time, There’s a lot to be found out about prehistoric animals and they have interactive screens near displays where you can see the dinosaur or other animal’s bone structures, where what organ goes and how they look with skin and hair/feathers. It gives you enough of information to read too… When it’s not jam packed.
Whenever I go back to Shanghai I will absolutely try and go back on a quiet day, even if that means having to come back a couple of days in a row. I would love to see and read all about the collection. Or go and tell me how it was!
Here’s a couple of pictures;
