The Shanghai Natural History Museum is located in Jing’an Sculpture Park. The venue is like a ‘green snail’ with a unique appearance. In today’s new museum, tens of thousands of specimen collections are on display, with rich content. In particular, the skeleton of a Mamenchisaurus sinocanadorum with a body length of about 26 meters is very eye-catching. The new museum has five floors in total, with two floors above ground and three floors underground.
Usually, visitors will start from the second floor above ground and visit down in turn. The whole journey takes about half a day to a day. Please allocate your physical strength. The exhibition on the second underground floor is rich. There are 10 permanent exhibitions in the museum, divided into three systems: natural evolution, life environment, and human civilization. The ‘Mystery of Origins’ exhibition hall on the second floor takes the course of human exploration of the universe as the main line and displays astronomical telescope models from ancient times to the present, as well as pictures and texts about astronomical knowledge. In the theater in a corner of the exhibition hall, you can also watch a 3D short film about meteorites. The ‘Long River of Life’ exhibition hall on the first floor displays a large number of animal specimens such as snakes, monkeys, and peacocks in categories. The huge Mamenchisaurus model rumbles and twists its neck, which is extremely realistic. You can observe live animals such as butterflies, chameleons, and jellyfish up close through transparent exhibition cases by experiencing the natural exhibition area. When you go to the seawater touch pool, you can also touch marine organisms such as starfish, sea cucumbers, and sea anemones by hand. It is a very rare experience. The ‘Way of Evolution’ (on the first underground floor) presents the entire context from the Cambrian explosion of life to the appearance of humans with a wide variety of animal skeletons and fossils. Here, not only can you see a wide variety of dinosaur fossils. When you open the museum’s official ‘augmented reality’ APP and aim at the skeleton of Lufengosaurus according to the prompts, two 3D Lufengosaurus, one large and one small, will run towards you on the screen. It seems that they want to jump out of the screen and say hello to you. It is very cute. Friends who like dinosaurs must not miss it. The second underground floor is the floor with relatively rich content in the entire museum, including five themes such as survival wisdom, exploration of the earth, and colorful life. If you look carefully at this floor, it will take a lot of time and physical strength. It is recommended to select the wonderful parts and focus on visiting.After a day of exploration, consider visiting the souvenir shop to find some delightful memorabilia, such as Arctic fox plush toys, elephant-head-handled mugs, and amber with preserved insects, all designed with great charm. These collectibles are mostly priced above 100 yuan, which, though a bit expensive, are worth the investment. A restaurant is located on the second floor beside the ‘Origins Mystery’ exhibit, and a small café is situated on the underground second floor. When feeling tired from wandering, take a break and enjoy the reasonably priced food. The museum is open Tuesday to Sunday from 09:00 to 17:00 all year round; closed on Mondays; and open on New Year’s Day, Spring Festival, Qingming Festival, Labor Day, Dragon Boat Festival, and National Day from 09:00 to 17:00.
Preferential policies include free admission for children under 1.3 meters or under 6 years old, and for seniors aged 70 and above with a valid senior citizen card or ID card. Seniors aged 60 to 69 can enjoy discounted tickets. Discounts are also available for disabled individuals, retired military officers, martyrs’ families, and national comprehensive fire and rescue personnel. Students above 1.
Service facilities include luggage storage for large items, free stroller rentals, and free wheelchair rentals.
