If you’re staying in Beijing during the Golden Week, there sure is a lot to do. The capital definitely doesn’t lack holiday action, but if you need an idea, how about a visit to the Beijing Museum of Natural History?
It’s a great family-friendly place to spend a morning or afternoon at, with kids exploring the colorful exhibitions and you brushing up on your knowledge of diversity of life on earth.
The museum itself is a three-story building with the most fascinating area being the Ancient Reptiles hall located on the first floor. It’s a permanent exhibition displaying dinosaur skeletons and fossils, some of them intact and very realistic. We had so much fun comparing our hands and feet to those of dinosaurs, ours seemed so tiny!
Apart from this, there’s also a dinosaur park where kids get to see a lifelike exhibit with massive, head-shaking, roaring, blinking dinosaurs in their natural habitats.
The rest of the exhibitions feature mammals, animals from all over the world, plants, and aquatic animals. The “Amazing Africa” exhibition was pretty cool for the kids to see with all the life-sized wild animals in vivid African scenery. Adults won’t learn much from it, but it’s definitely fascinating for the kids.
There’s also an aquarium in the basement, but we didn’t get the chance to visit, the dinosaurs and everything dino-related was pretty much all the kids cared about.
Another interesting exhibition is “Animals-The Friends of Humankind” featuring hundreds of animal specimens from different countries: polar bears, tigers, wolves, pandas, snakes, you name it.
There is also a 4D cinema on the third floor and a gift shop on the second. Even though the museum is extremely kid- and family-friendly, there are a lot of stairs so strollers are a no-go.
Beijing Museum of Natural History is open six days a week (except Monday) 9am-5pm. Visitors, children included, must make online reservations at least 1 day before the visit. The easiest way to do it is through their website or official Wechat account. You’ll need to choose the date and provide your passport number. And now the best part – admission is free. So if you’re looking for ideas for a nice family afternoon, head to the Museum of Natural History and let your family experience all the wonders of nature.
Find it:
Beijing Museum of Natural History
北京自然博物馆
126, Tianqiao Street
天桥南大街126号
Tel: 67027702
Images: Sanja Stojkov
