Anhui Geological Museum

Anhui Geological Museum

The Anhui Geological Museum is a protected cultural heritage site of Anhui Province.

The Anhui Geological Museum is located at No. 239 Wuhu Road, Hefei City, adjacent to the Provincial Library and Bao Gong Temple across the street. It covers an area of approximately 3,600 square meters, with a building area of 1,460 square meters. Its classical Chinese architectural style once made it one of the four iconic buildings in Hefei during the early post-liberation period.

It is currently the only provincial-level natural science museum in Anhui Province. Affiliated with the Anhui Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources, its operational funds are allocated as per administrative institutions. The museum has a well-established organizational structure, with three departments: Science Popularization, Scientific Research, and Exhibition. It maintains a balanced staff composition, with 80% holding mid- to senior-level technical titles. The museum is equipped with permanent science education facilities and corresponding promotional materials, and employs highly qualified instructors dedicated to youth science education.

The museum currently has four exhibition halls and two rooms open to the public: the Mineral Resources Hall, the Curio Stone Hall, the Biological Evolution Hall, the Geological History Hall, as well as the Gem & Jade Room and the Audiovisual Room.

The Anhui Geological Museum has formulated plans to utilize its existing premises and collections as a foundation, raise funds through various channels, and undergo a certain scale of expansion. This will transform the former Geological Museum into the Anhui Natural History Museum. Through the dual themes of biological evolution and Earth’s evolution, visitors will learn about the formation of celestial bodies, the development of the Earth, the emergence and evolutionary history of life on Earth, as well as the origin and progression of humankind.

The goal is to establish the museum as a base for youth science education, patriotic education, geological research, and mineral resource information dissemination, as well as a cultural and leisure destination for the public in Hefei City.

The Anhui Geological Museum has been designated as a teaching internship base for universities such as the University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei University of Technology, Anhui University, and Anhui Agricultural University. It is currently in discussions with the Hefei Geography Society to become a geography teaching internship base for primary and secondary schools in Hefei.

Since its opening, the Anhui Geological Museum has co-hosted the National Earth Science Summer Camp annually with the Communist Youth League of the Anhui Geological Society. It has welcomed around 20,000 students from various primary and secondary schools, including Hefei No. 1 High School, No. 2 High School, and Nanmen Primary School.

The Anhui Geological Museum houses a collection of over 2,000 geological specimens, including rare items such as those from the Late Precambrian period in Anhui, the Huainan Fauna, the Triassic period, and Chaohu恐龙. The exhibition rooms are fully enclosed. The museum features specialized exhibition rooms for Comprehensive Geology, Mineral Resources, and Precious and Colored Stones. The main displays include ancient organisms, minerals, rocks, ores, gems, jade, colored stones, stone carving artworks, remote sensing geological images, and geological specimens from abroad.

Further Reading:

· China's National First-Class Museums