Chongqing Natural History Museum

Chongqing Natural History Museum

The Chongqing Natural History Museum is a national AAAA-level tourist attraction and a science education base.

The Chongqing Natural History Museum is a comprehensive natural history museum in China, located on Pipa Mountain in Chongqing. Its predecessor was the Western China Science Institute. In 1944, it was established as the Western China Museum. After 1949, it was successively renamed as the Southwest People's Science Museum, the Natural Museum of the Southwest Museum, and the Natural Department of the Chongqing Museum. It was renamed to its current name in 1981.

The museum houses nearly 70,000 specimens in geology, mineral resources, paleontology, animals, plants, soil, and Paleolithic artifacts, including over 100 holotype and other rare specimens. It has a collection of representative dinosaur fossil specimens from various categories and time periods in the Sichuan region, with eight mounted skeletons on display and over 100 dinosaur footprint fossils. Additionally, the museum’s specimen of Trionyx wimani (Late Jurassic) is one of the earliest discovered turtle fossils in the world; the snake-necked turtle specimen is a rare find outside Europe; and the Chengyuchelys baenoides, representing one of the earliest known turtles in China, is also rare in global records, with its fossils being of significant importance to the study of early turtle evolution. Animal specimens include nationally protected species such as giant pandas, takins, golden snub-nosed monkeys, red pandas, snow leopards, tufted deer, Lady Amherst’s pheasants, and Chinese giant salamanders. Plant specimens comprise 221 families, over 1,500 genera, and more than 2,400 species, many of which are rare plant specimens.

The museum also holds over 100,000 specimens across eight major disciplines: animals, plants, paleontology, paleoanthropology, Paleolithic artifacts, minerals, rocks, and soil. Especially notable are its Mesozoic paleontological fossils, such as those of various dinosaurs (bones, footprints, eggs), as well as ichthyosaurs, lizards, crocodiles, turtles, fish, birds, plants, and invertebrates from different eras. The quantity and quality of these collections rank among the top in similar museums nationwide. There are already 15 mounted dinosaur skeleton fossils on display. The Paleolithic and paleoanthropology collections include over 1,000 specimens, among which are fossils of early humans and Gigantopithecus fauna from Wushan, dating back 2 million years to the early Pleistocene—important specimens for the study of human origins.

The museum also has over 2,000 specimens of extant animals including fish, amphibians, reptiles, mammals, birds, and insects, totaling more than 4,000 items, covering most of the nationally protected rare animal species. The plant collection includes 215 families, 1,246 genera, and over 2,230 species, among which 46 species of nationally protected plants such as Cathaya argyrophylla, Alsophila spinulosa, Davidia involucrata, and Metasequoia glyptostroboides are preserved. Leveraging its rich collection, the museum frequently hosts large-scale exhibitions and traveling displays, such as “Dinosaur Fossil Exhibition,” “Vertebrate Exhibition,” “Butterfly Exhibition,” and “Ancient Life Wonders – Paleontological Evolution and Dinosaur Knowledge Exhibition.” Past exhibitions organized by the museum include “Sichuan Dinosaur Fossil Exhibition,” “Sichuan Vertebrate Exhibition,” “Biological Evolution Exhibition,” and “Exhibition of Returned Dinosaur Fossils.”

In addition, there are teaching reference rooms for animals and plants, as well as other temporary exhibitions.

Ticket Price: Free admission

Opening Hours: Tuesday to Sunday, 9:00–17:00 (last entry at 16:00); closed on Mondays (except public holidays)

Further Reading:

· National First-Class Museum of China