Tianjin Gulin Ancient Coast Relics Museum

Tianjin Gulin Ancient Coast Relics Museum

The Tianjin Gulin Ancient Coast Relics Museum serves as a science education base and a patriotic education base.

The Tianjin Gulin Ancient Coast Relics Museum is located within the ancient shell bank area of the Tianjin Ancient Coast and Wetlands National Nature Reserve, southeast of Dagang District. Approved by the municipal government in 2002, construction began in March 2003, and the museum was completed and opened to the public in October of the same year. Since its opening, it has welcomed over 100,000 visitors, including domestic and international experts, scholars, group tourists, and students from elementary, middle, and high schools.

The museum covers a building area of 2,200 square meters and a protected land area of 6 hectares. It consists of one underground level and two above-ground levels. The underground section is the ancient shell bank profile exhibition area, which is part of the oldest segment of the second shell bank. Alongside the shell banks of Louisiana in the United States and Suriname in South America, it is recognized as one of the world’s three major ancient shell banks. Among these, the exhibited ancient shell bank features the richest layers, the highest shell content, and the most magnificent scale. Formed approximately 2,600 years ago, this ancient shell bank is one of Tianjin’s natural relics of sea-land transformation and holds significant scientific value for research in fields such as ancient geography, paleoclimate, marine ecology, and sea-land change. The first part of the ground floor includes three exhibition areas, introducing the Tianjin Gulin Ancient Coast Relics Museum and the shell banks along the western coast of the Bohai Bay, their geographical location in Binhai New Area, as well as the sea-land transformation process of the Bohai Bay over the past ten thousand years and the modern shoreline change exhibition. The second part of the ground floor mainly displays research achievements by three representative figures in shell bank studies, common mollusk shells found in the Bohai Bay shell banks, some archaeological artifacts discovered on the shell banks, and the main microfossils typically found in modern intertidal zones and shallow sea areas. The second floor is dedicated to science education exhibitions, divided into sections such as “Vast Changes in the Land and Sea,” “Ancient Shell Banks,” “Oyster Reefs,” “Qilihai Wetland,” and “Management and Protection.” Through text and images, it provides a comprehensive and detailed introduction to the sea-land transformation process in the Tianjin area and the vital role played by wetland ecosystems—known as the “kidneys of the Earth”—in environmental improvement.

The Tianjin Gulin Ancient Coast Relics Museum is recognized as a Tianjin Science Education Base, a Tianjin Youth Marine Knowledge Education Base, and a Dagang District Patriotic Education Base. It also serves as a science education and teaching internship base for organizations such as the Communist Youth League Municipal Committee and Tianjin University of Science and Technology. In 2009, it was designated as a Tianjin Patriotic Education Base by the Municipal Party Committee and Municipal Government.

Address of the Tianjin Gulin Ancient Coast Relics Museum: South of Shanggulin, Dagang, Binhai New Area, east of Jinqi Highway. Open free of charge from 9:00 to 16:00, Monday to Sunday. Contact number: 63210409. Website: www.dgwhxxw.gov.cn.