We had a good buffet breakfast at SSAW Boutique Hotel Shanghai Bund and headed to our first itinerary for Day 2 in Shanghai – The Shanghai Natural History Museum.
Day 2 is Museum Day
My plan before coming to China, was to tour more of its museums because of the rich ancient history. Therefore, I had planned several museum visits over the next few days in our China Trip and today was “Museum Day” in Shanghai, where we would visit two museums.
As we are all interested in Natural History, it is a must for us to visit the Shanghai Natural History Museum to view some dinosaur fossils! (We saw some before in Austria Salzburg’s Natural History Museum and Singapore’s Lee Kong Chian Museum)
Entrance of Shanghai Natural History Museum
Taking a taxi ride, we arrived at the huge building but wasn’t in a hurry to go in as we were attracted by the pretty flowers! Located in the middle of the Jing’An Sculpture Park, the newly built Shanghai Natural History Museum (in 2015) has an impressive architecture design that blended well with the greenery. Flowers were blooming in the park and we made a note to visit it after the museum.
Soon, we discovered that we had to walk through two long passageways of fences before we could even reach the main entrance. (Later, we found this to be a common occurrence in China). I think these are for busy weeks where lots of people are visiting at the same time. Just imagine the crowd!
Shanghai Natural History Museum –
1. Mystery of Origins
The first thing we did was to head to the highest floor L2 – starting with the “A Panorama of the Universe Exhibition” where the Beginnings of the Universe is explored. There were a few interesting ancient Astronomy tools to look at and some interactive learning. We could also look at how meteorites look like.
2. River of Life – Animal Specimens Exhibits
We didn’t stay long in the Universe exhibit as I prefer animals. Walking down further, we discovered lots of preserved animal specimens and dinosaur models on the bottom level. We spent the most time here, walking down the spiral pathway and looking at each group of specimens.
I found the architecture design of the displays amazing. I like that every figure displayed was labeled clearly with Chinese, English, and Latin binomial nomenclatures. We were able to comfortably view the displays even though there were lots of people, as they were spaced out quite well.
The Argentinosaurus actually roared and moved. Ling was worried but still fascinated, staring at it for a while.
3. Live Insects / Animals / Aquarium
I was surprised there were live insects and fishes too in tanks. We spent some time looking through them. The first being a butterfly enclosure, where guests are only allowed in 15 minutes at a time at certain times. There are even petting pools where there are schedules to pet animals, such as stingrays and starfish.
Theatre of the Cambrian Explosion
This was worth staying and watching as we felt as if we were underwater, watching an evolution process of single-celled organisms into deep-sea creatures.
4. The Way of Evolution
This area was the main reason why we were here – Dinosaur Fossils!
We encountered the second dinosaur animatronics here. Hear the T-Rex roar! It had its belly cut open to reveal a model of the bones and muscles within.
And lots of other prehistoric fossils to look at…
5. The Next Wave
We entered into more modern times, Animals in the Ice Age and evolution of our human ancestors. “What are we?” “Where do we come from?”
6. Walk into Africa
At the last level, B2, we walked into a most interesting area. We could take our time to admire all the Africa animals, which looked so real. There was a light and sound show here at scheduled times across huge screen, where we watched how the animals dash after each other in the savanna. Show Times (8mins) : 10:00 11:00 12:00 13:00 14:00 15:00 16:00
7. Beautiful Taxidermy Displays
Don’t miss the hall with beautifully displayed taxidermy of insects, skins of creatures and heads of horned creatures mounted on the wall. Really awesome to look at!
8. Arctic Hall
We then went from the hot grassland to a cool world of the Arctic where we could see different type of penguins, several arctic animals and walk on top of a baby seal encased in a glass floor.
Lunch in Museum Cafeteria
Taking a break, we went for lunch in the Museum Cafeteria on Level 2F.
I was disappointed when we could not find seats in the main area but on walking in further, we found a private room with round tables and seats. After asking, they said we were free to sit there! Great! It was nice to be separated from all that noise too while eating. ^_^
Restaurant Menu
The food prices were pretty reasonable and we ordered 3 main dishes for each of us.
Vin thought we might not have enough and ordered another plate of wings too. This turned out a little too much. Ling shared the fried rice with us. I did not order drinks since we had free soup but Vin ordered fresh soya drink to try.
Taste Verdict:
I enjoyed my curry chicken rice with veggies. All the roasted chicken and wings were delicious too. Usually free soups do not have much of a taste but these free tomato soup were great! The fried rice was tasty as well. I love that they all came with lots of veggies for a balanced meal.
Shanghai Natural History Museum Souvenir Shop
We finished with our tour and landed in the Museum’s souvenir shop, which had so many interesting things to look at! I ended up buying a T-Rex soft toy for Ling, a few insects keychains and a whale shark (requested by Dar).
[ Summary ]
We enjoyed ourselves thoroughly as there were so many things to see and learn about! It was so huge that we missed some multimedia shows and exhibits with the limited time. We spent about 3 hours here exploring, plus 40 minutes for lunch.
Why Visit? Official Website: http://www.snhm.org.cn
The Shanghai Natural History Museum has a collection of 240,000 samples, which can be categorized into plants, animals, paleontology, geology and humanity. There are also rare species of animals which cannot be found elsewhere outside China. The largest exhibit is a 140-million-year-old dinosaur skeleton of Mamenchisaurus hochuanensis from Sichuan Province, which is over four stories high.
- Opening Hours: From Tuesday to Sunday – 9:00 – 17:00 (last ticketing hr: 4.30pm). Monday is closed except public holidays.
- Tickets: Adults: CNY 30 Child/Student: CNY 12
>> Read Next Post: Walk at Jing’an Sculpture Park
Shanghai: Day 2 Itinerary
- Shanghai Natural History Museum / Lunch
- Walk at Jing’an Sculpture Park for Flower Viewing and Photo-taking (Stumbled-upon visit)
- Shanghai Museum
- Shanghai Tower
Read More of our China 2018 Trip: 9-Day Family Travel Itinerary in China Shanghai, Suzhou & Hangzhou
Tips For Travelling in China: “Essential Tips for Safe Family Travel in China“
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