Shanghai Natural History Museum

Housed in a striking spiral-shaped building in Jing’an Sculpture Park, the museum covers the origin of the universe, evolution of life, and biodiversity through dinosaur skeletons, taxidermy, and immersive dioramas, making it a popular destination for families and science enthusiasts.

Planning your visit

The Shanghai Natural History Museum is built as a nautilus shell — a spiral descending around a central courtyard with a living wall and pool, in Jing'an Sculpture Park, with most of the museum underground. The route follows evolution downward through the origin of the universe, the emergence of life, dinosaurs, biodiversity and human civilisation, using large-scale dioramas, animatronics and a very substantial taxidermy collection alongside mounted skeletons.

It is emphatically a family museum and busy accordingly: weekends and Chinese school holidays fill it, and the dinosaur hall bottlenecks. Admission requires advance reservation. Signage is bilingual, better than at many Chinese museums, so independent visits work reasonably well. Allow three hours.

Bookable options include entry tickets, guided tours, and family day formats combining the museum with the Shanghai Astronomy Museum in Pudong — a separate and much newer institution, and one of the largest planetarium complexes in the world, which pairs naturally for a science-focused day with children. Other combinations add a Huangpu River cruise. Given both museums require their own reservations and sit on opposite sides of the city, bundled formats that handle the logistics save real effort. Current options are listed below.