Zhejiang Museum of Natural History

Zhejiang Museum of Natural History

Zhejiang Museum of Natural History, formerly known as West Lake Museum, was established in 1929 and became an independent institution in 1984. The museum covers an area of nearly 8,000 square meters. It is one of the oldest museums founded independently in China and the only provincial-level museum in Zhejiang Province that primarily engages in the collection, research, and exhibition of life science and earth science specimens.

The current location is at No. 6, West Lake Cultural Square, Xiacheng District, Hangzhou. Through the hard work, accumulation, and exploration of several generations of museum staff, it has developed into a nature museum with advanced concepts, top-tier national standards, and distinctive Zhejiang characteristics. The main building is a specimen repository with a construction area of over 3,000 square meters. The newly built exhibition hall opened to the public in January 1998, with a construction area of over 2,000 square meters. The museum houses nearly 100,000 specimens, including plant, mineral, aquatic organism, animal, and amphibian specimens. Among these are many precious specimens, such as the pterosaur fossil unearthed in Linhai, Zhejiang, which is one of the few relatively complete fossil specimens in the country. In addition, there is a large number of first- and second-class nationally protected animal and plant specimens, many of which were collected when the museum was first established and are now extinct species.

Address: No. 6, West Lake Cultural Square, 581 North Zhongshan Road, Xiacheng District

Transportation: Accessible via Metro Line 1, and buses 19, 30, and 38

Admission: Free

Opening Hours: 9:30 AM to 4:00 PM, Tuesday to Sunday; closed on Mondays

Further Reading:

· National First-Class Museum of China