Xixi Wetland Museum

Xixi Wetland Museum

Xixi Wetland Museum is China’s first national wetland park listed in the "International Important Wetlands List." It is also the only national-level museum in the country dedicated to showcasing China’s wetlands. The museum has four main exhibition halls: the Introductory Hall, the Wetland and Humanity Hall, the China Hall, and the Xixi Hall.

The nearly 11-square-kilometer Xixi area is located less than 5 kilometers from West Lake. It is China’s first national wetland park that integrates urban wetlands, agricultural wetlands, and cultural wetlands, and is also a national 5A-level tourist attraction. The China Wetland Museum, built within the Xixi Wetland, covers a construction area of 20,000 square meters and is a specialized museum that combines collection, research, exhibitions, education, and entertainment.

In the early stages of architecture design, numerous internationally renowned designers, including Mario Botta, Javier Pioz, and Arata Isozaki, were invited to participate in the design competition. Eventually, the project was finalized in collaboration with Japan's Arata Isozaki & Associates. At the same time, international professional exhibition planning companies such as the UK’s MET Studio were invited to be involved in the internal planning and design of the museum, aiming to build it into a leading, world-class museum in China.

The China Wetland Museum will take the Xixi Wetland as its base to reinterpret the diverse values of the Xixi and other wetlands, examine their relationship with human life from a historical perspective, and explore how we can coexist harmoniously with wetlands in the future.

This museum, with an investment of 300 million yuan, features the concept of a “green mound” as its central image: the main building, entirely covered in green vegetation, is almost embedded into an artificial hill. The observation tower atop it echoes the “green mound,” facing the wetland. A disc-shaped structure, over 30 meters high, extends diagonally outward. It not only offers a panoramic view of the Xixi Wetland but also metaphorically represents new growth emerging from nature. According to information, the museum uses a variety of display methods including plant and animal specimens integrated with landscapes, interactive technologies, special effects, cinemas, and experimental and demonstration devices. The 538-square-meter Science Popularization Center and the 4D cinema within the museum utilize photoelectric, sound, and visual technologies to make the theme of wetlands and humanity vivid and child-friendly. The museum is divided into four themed exhibition halls: the Introductory Hall, the Wetland and Humanity Hall, the China Hall, and the Xixi Hall. The design of the China Hall is particularly noteworthy — characterized by an “immersive” scene experience, it introduces the status, characteristics of China’s wetland resources, and the relationship between wetlands and sustainable development through open exhibition halls and multimedia technologies such as a 160-degree panoramic cinema. Visitors can take an ecological journey of the wetlands by following restored scenes of seven types of Chinese wetlands: the mangrove forests of Shankou in Guangxi, the Chongming Dongtan in Shanghai, the Poyang Lake in Jiangxi, the wetlands of the Sanjiang Plain in Northeast China, the Bayinbuluke and Tarim River poplar forests in Xinjiang, the Sanjiangyuan in Qinghai, and the Hani Terraces in Yunnan. Through lifelike reconstructions, visitors can gain vivid insights into phenomena unique to mangrove wetlands such as salt secretion and plant viviparity, the transformation history of the Sanjiang Plain from the “Great Northern Wilderness” to the “Great Northern Granary,” migratory bird habits, and the differing landscapes between artificial and natural wetlands.

On November 2, 2009, the China Wetland Museum, located in the southeast of Xixi National Wetland Park, officially opened to the public. It is the only large-scale, public, national-level professional museum in China approved by the State Forestry Administration with a focus on wetlands. The entire exhibition space covers approximately 7,800 square meters, including the Introductory Hall, the Wetland and Humanity Hall, the China Hall, the Xixi Hall, and others.

Zijin Gang Road, Xihu District, Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province, about 200 meters from Tianmu Shan Road. Adjacent to Xixi National Wetland Park.

Further reading:

· China National Second-Class Museum