Guangdong Science Center

Guangdong Science Center

The Guangdong Science Center is a national AAAA-level tourist attraction and a science education base.

The Guangdong Science Center is situated at the westernmost end of Xiaoguwei Island in Guangzhou Higher Education Mega Center. With a construction cost of 1.9 billion RMB and a construction period of nearly five years, it had its lighting ceremony on September 19, 2008. The opening ceremony took place on the afternoon of September 26, 2008, and the center opened to the public on September 27. Covering an area of 450,000 square meters, the Guangdong Science Center is located on Xiaoguwei Island in Guangzhou Higher Education Mega Center. It is bordered by rivers to the south and north, faces the Binjiang Ecological Park to the west, and neighbors the Outer Ring Road of Guangzhou Higher Education Mega Center to the east. Its main entrance directly faces Guangzhou University.

The Guangdong Science Center — approved for construction by the Guangdong Provincial Committee and Government — is a large-scale scientific activity venue featuring four major functions: science education, scientific and technological achievement exhibitions, academic exchanges, and leisure tourism. It serves as an important public science education base in Guangdong Province; a platform for showcasing, promoting, trading, and exchanging scientific and technological products; and a model destination for science-themed tourism and leisure.

Located in Guangzhou Higher Education Mega Center (western end of Xiaoguwei Island, Panyu District), the Guangdong Science Center covers a land area of 450,000 square meters and has a building area of 137,500 square meters. The overall architectural form of the exhibition halls resembles a “science aircraft carrier,” featuring a unique design and a majestic presence. Viewed from the front, it looks like a dynamic scientific “eye of discovery”; from the side, like a “fleet” ready for departure; and from above, it resembles a blooming kapok flower. It is a representative project of China’s “green architecture” and a landmark building in Guangzhou.

The first phase of exhibition projects at the Guangdong Science Center was completed and opened to the public on September 27, 2008. The center houses eight permanent thematic exhibition areas: Children’s World, Experiment & Discovery, Digital World, Transportation World, Green Home, Space Dream, Human & Health, and Perception & Thinking. There are also four science and technology theaters: 3D Giant Screen, 4D, Dome, and Virtual Navigation. Additionally, there is a Digital Home Experience Hall, Open Laboratories, and several temporary thematic exhibition areas. The exhibits employ a variety of high-tech methods, organically integrating science, knowledge, and fun, allowing visitors to acquire scientific knowledge through hands-on participation and personal experience. The outdoor Science Exploration Park features an 80,000-square-meter artificial lake, over 60 classic science exhibits, and more than 2,000 plant species unique to Lingnan. With its unique design and enchanting landscape, it is a popular science park among visitors. Since its opening, the Guangdong Science Center has been honored with multiple titles, including “Guangdong Science Education Base,” “Guangdong Youth Science and Technology Education Base,” “National Tourism and Leisure Demonstration Unit,” Guangdong’s first “Science and Technology Tourism Demonstration Site,” and National AAAA-level Tourist Attraction.

In addition to science exhibitions, the Guangdong Science Center is also committed to organizing various large-scale science and technology events, and provides comprehensive services for science and technology exhibitions, promotions, trading, exchanges, and conferences for governments, enterprises, and institutions at all levels. With ample exhibition space and well-equipped facilities — including guest rooms, multifunctional conference halls, lecture theaters, meeting rooms, cafes, simultaneous interpretation equipment, restaurants, and more — it can meet the needs of various meetings and events.

The second phase of exhibition projects currently under planning at the Guangdong Science Center will focus on the goal of being “nationally leading and internationally first-class.” Emphasizing cutting-edge social technologies, it will highlight achievements in modern science and technology, and leverage Guangdong’s advantages in scientific, technological, economic, and cultural resources. By improving various service facilities for science and technology activities, it aims to develop the Guangdong Science Center into a significant window for showcasing Guangdong’s scientific and technological advancements, an important science education platform, and a hub for science and technology resources in the Pan-Pearl River Delta region.

Permanent Exhibition Halls

Children’s World Exhibition Hall

Science education should start with children. The “Children’s World” themed exhibition hall is primarily designed for children under 12 years old. Based on the characteristics of this age group and relevant educational theories, it starts from the children’s experiences, perspectives, and cognitive development patterns. Through a variety of engaging formats such as interactive games, role-playing, scenario experiences, and scientific exploration, it helps children learn simple scientific knowledge related to daily life and their surroundings. This enriches their childhood experiences, maintains their curiosity, stimulates imagination and creativity, and fosters interest in learning and a desire to explore. The hall is divided into four zones: “My Home and Residential Community,” “My City,” “My World,” and “My Workshop,” featuring a total of 48 exhibits. Interactive experience exhibits such as the Body Playground, Supermarket,启蒙 Theater (Enlightenment Theater), Home Safety Drill, and Traffic School are especially popular. They allow children to learn about daily health, nutrition, safety evacuation, and safe driving knowledge through participation and hands-on experience.

“My Home and Residential Community” begins with daily life, allowing children to perceive and interact with things around them through play and hands-on activities. It lets them experience the science in everyday life, sparking their curiosity to explore its mysteries, understand, and initially form scientific living behaviors and habits.

“My City” offers simulated activity experiences that allow young visitors to engage with aspects of urban life such as transportation, architecture, communications, and energy supply. They can explore the science and technology involved and feel how technological progress drives the development of social civilization, while also fostering awareness of energy conservation and environmental protection.

“My World” explores the mysteries of the natural world. Through interactive exhibits related to crops, animals, plants, and Earth’s minerals, it sparks children’s curiosity and interest in observation, encourages enthusiasm for exploring the natural world, instills awareness of ecological environment protection, and promotes respect for labor and appreciation of its fruits.

“My Workshop” provides an interactive learning environment that nurtures imagination, spirit of exploration, and self-expression. It allows children to personally experience the process of scientific exploration through “hands-on doing,” expand their thinking space, simulate the research processes of scientists, and receive early science education.

Space Dream Exhibition Hall

Soaring through the blue sky has been a dream of humanity for thousands of years. One of the greatest achievements of the 20th century was breaking free from Earth’s gravity and realizing the age-old dream of flight.

In recent years, the rise of space enthusiasm has provided an excellent opportunity for our center to build the Space Dream Exhibition Hall and promote aerospace knowledge. This exhibition hall is divided into three zones: “Challenging the Sky,” “Flying into Space,” and “Exploring the Stars,” featuring a total of 50 exhibits.

“Challenging the Sky” mainly showcases the aviation technology that enables humans to freely fly through the skies, such as the basic principles of flight, the design and structure of aircraft, aviation materials and reliability, piloting and control of aircraft, navigation, and air traffic control.

“Flying into Space” uses the development of domestic and international aerospace technology as a backdrop and centers on the progress of China’s space program. It displays aerospace-related scientific and technological knowledge, including the basic principles of space launch and flight, and the systems engineering involved in manned spaceflight.

“Exploring the Stars” uses humanity’s current astronomical knowledge and aerospace technology to introduce the solar system, the Milky Way, and extragalactic systems. It aims to stimulate the audience’s interest in exploring the mysteries of the universe and developing its resources, as well as to inspire thoughts about the future of humanity.

The highlight of this exhibition hall is its extensive use of interactive methods to demonstrate humanity’s quest for flight, understanding of the universe, and efforts in space development. It also emphasizes China’s remarkable achievements in the aerospace industry, inspiring visitors’ enthusiasm for exploring space and dedicating themselves to the aerospace cause.

Perception & Thinking Exhibition Hall

Perception and thinking abilities are the foundation for humans to understand and recognize the world. Exploring the self and the mysteries of the mind is an eternal theme for humanity. The “Perception & Thinking” exhibition hall follows the human cognitive process as its main thread, incorporates cutting-edge knowledge from cognitive science and brain science, and sets up 44 engaging perception-based activity exhibits. These allow visitors to experience the mysteries of psychological processes firsthand and reflect on the nature of thinking.

The hall is divided into three zones: “Perception Garden,” “Illusion Kingdom,” and “Thinking Space.”

“Perception Garden” — Upon entering the “Perception Garden,” visitors engage all their sensory organs to experience vision, hearing, touch, and more. They learn about how the human body identifies and processes external information and the underlying patterns. Major exhibits include Dreams and the Perception Clues Theater.

“Illusion Kingdom” — Visitors experience a range of incredible optical and perceptual illusions. Through these phenomena, they gain insight into the many scientific principles and knowledge behind human perception. Major exhibits include Visual vs. Experience, the Invisibility Room, and the 小屋 (Small House).

“Thinking Space” — This section reveals the laws of brain thinking activities (such as learning, memory, and attention) and leads us to explore issues such as how to use the brain scientifically, improve thinking ability, and develop the brain’s potential.

Transport World Pavilion

The "Transport World" pavilion takes the development of automotive and transportation technologies and the progress of human civilization as its exhibition theme, and is designed around the concept of harmony between humans and transportation and sustainable development. It showcases everything from the basic principles of automobiles to modern automotive industry and the latest transportation system technologies, introduces the history of automobile development, branded vehicles, motorsports, as well as new trends in the development of automotive and rail transit technologies, highlighting how technological advancement has transformed human life.

Centered around the exhibition theme and design philosophy, this pavilion features 29 carefully designed exhibits, including two highlight exhibits: ITS City and Maglev; two exciting exhibits: Simulated Rollover and Economical Driving; and is divided into four exhibition zones: "Fundamentals of Automotive Technology," "Latest Automotive Technologies," "Future Urban Transportation," and "Automotive Life and Entertainment."

"Fundamentals of Automotive Technology" primarily introduces the structure, types, working principles of automobiles, as well as the processes and related technologies of automotive design and manufacturing. This area provides visitors with a platform for economical driving and car design, and offers an authentic environment for those keen to explore the inner workings of automobiles.

"Latest Automotive Technologies" showcases the application of high-tech in vehicles, such as active safety technologies, clean energy technologies, and resource regeneration technologies, making car usage safer, more environmentally friendly, comfortable, and convenient.

"Future Urban Transportation" mainly presents future intelligent urban transportation systems, as well as knowledge about rapid transit and rail transit.

"Automotive Life and Entertainment" displays content related to vehicle maintenance and usage, the relationship between cars and energy environments, and automotive culture.

Green Home Introduction

As understanding of nature deepens, people are increasingly aware of the importance of environmental protection, resource conservation, and harmonious sustainable development. With environmental protection as its theme and Lingnan characteristics as its backdrop, the "Green Home" pavilion at the Guangdong Science Center presents the beauty of nature in a vivid, intuitive, and engaging way, conveying the exhibition theme that Earth is the cradle of life and the shared home of millions of species, including humans.

The pavilion is divided into three areas: "Green Cradle," "Green Crisis," and "Green Action," featuring a total of 45 exhibits.

"Green Cradle" focuses on the structure, balance, and cycles of the Earth system and ecosystems, primarily showcasing the four major spheres of the macro Earth system; the material cycles and energy flows within the Earth system and their impact on ecosystems and their balance; as well as several typical ecosystems and their resource conditions in the Pearl River Basin, combining broad and detailed perspectives to illustrate the natural ecological environment and patterns of change in the basin.

"Green Crisis" reveals the resource crises, environmental pollution, ecological damage, and frequent natural disasters caused by the rapid development of modern industry and humanity’s endless exploitation and destruction of nature, warning that our once green home is now facing serious threats.

"Green Action" highlights the actions taken to protect our green home, such as ecological restoration, environmental governance, and the development and utilization of new energy sources, calling on every citizen to consciously participate in green initiatives, start with small actions, spread green civilization, and build our green home.

Human and Health Pavilion

Health is an eternal theme of human concern. The Human and Health Pavilion uses humans as the main thread and health as the core, helping visitors understand the scientific concept of health and gradually adopt healthy lifestyles through exhibits on human body structure and function, medical technology and health, and scientific lifestyles and health. The pavilion is divided into three areas: "The Mystery of the Human Body," "Technology and Health," and "My Healthy Life," with a total of 31 exhibits.

The Mystery of the Human Body: In an environment simulating a circus tent, this area introduces knowledge about human body structure, allowing visitors to appreciate the complexity of bodily structures and revealing how various organs and systems work together, helping them understand that the human body is a unified and coordinated organic whole.

Technology and Health: This area mainly introduces the application of medical technology in safeguarding and promoting human health. Here, visitors can explore the human "DNA database," use high-tech medical imaging diagnostic equipment to uncover the mysteries inside the human body, and learn about the global distribution of major diseases threatening humanity through a global health tracker.

My Healthy Life: In this area, visitors can personally participate in physical fitness tests and experience sports competitions, interact with exhibits such as the "Health Risk Puppet" and "Diet, Exercise, and Health," and explore the relationship between scientific lifestyles and health, thereby gaining an understanding of and adopting a scientific way of living.

Experiment and Discovery Pavilion

The "Experiment and Discovery" pavilion places the dissemination of scientific thinking methods above the imparting of scientific knowledge itself, immersing visitors in the atmosphere of a scientific laboratory, experiencing the great discoveries of scientific pioneers, comprehending the thought processes behind scientific inquiry, and inspiring scientific thinking.

The pavilion features 49 exhibits divided into five areas: "Science Discovery Plaza," "Galileo Laboratory," "Faraday Laboratory," "Newton Laboratory," and "Exploring the Secrets of Life Genetics." In the laboratory zones named after world-renowned scientists, visitors can travel back in time to the eras when these pioneers made their groundbreaking achievements, experiencing firsthand the thoughts and methods behind their experiments and discoveries.

"Science Discovery Plaza" presents ten classic experiments from around the world, showcasing the historical progression of major scientific discoveries and helping visitors realize that with ingenious experimental designs, even the simplest equipment can be used to explore and discover fundamental scientific concepts and laws.

"Galileo Laboratory" follows the discovery process of the law of free fall, introducing how Galileo, based on observational experiments and integrating mathematics, developed the "experiment-mathematics" method, pioneering the scientific approach to studying natural laws.

"Faraday Laboratory" traces the discovery process of electromagnetic induction law, illustrating how Faraday used "magnetic lines of force" to visually explore electromagnetic induction patterns, and introduces Maxwell’s conceptual unification of electromagnetic phenomena under the idea of fields. Imagination is more important than knowledge itself.

"Newton Laboratory" centers on the discovery of the law of universal gravitation, describing how Newton, "standing on the shoulders of giants," unified the laws of celestial and terrestrial motion through thought methods such as "imagination, hypothesis, experiment, analogy, deduction, and induction," establishing the classical mechanics system and demonstrating the immense role of scientific thinking and methods in humanity’s exploration of the unknown.

Digital World Pavilion

The "Digital World" thematic pavilion uses digital technology as its thread, allowing visitors to understand and become familiar with the fundamentals of digital technology and its typical applications in daily life through interactive exhibits and immersive experiences, enabling them to experience the charm of digital technology and the significant impact of its development on people’s lives. At the same time, visitors can learn about the integrated application of cutting-edge digital technologies and glimpse the future prospects of digital technology.

The pavilion features 29 exhibits divided into 5 zones, with highlight exhibits including the "Humanoid Robot Stage" and "Virtual Tour," and fun exhibits such as "Network Information Transmission" and "Challenge the Robot."

"Introductory Area – The Pulsating City" digitizes Guangdong’s economic, industrial, cultural, educational, and tourism developments, allowing visitors to experience the dynamic vibrancy of the city.

"Digital Fundamentals" introduces the basics of digital technology, including fundamental concepts of digital technology, as well as basic knowledge of computers and networks.

"Digital Applications" showcases the application of digital technology in daily life.

"Digital Wonderland" creates a digital playland using sensing technology, multimedia technology, and computer image processing technology, highlighting a gamified experience.

"Digital Dreams" displays robotics technology, virtual reality technology, and mixed reality technology.

Digital Home Experience Hall

The Digital Home Experience Hall is a comprehensive science popularization exhibition hall that introduces the development history of digital technology, humanity's application of digital technology, the current status of digital technology development, as well as demonstrating various digital home life experiences and interactive exchanges. It is primarily designed for audience participation and hands-on interaction. The exhibition hall was built to adapt to the current trends of information development, enhance independent innovation capabilities, strengthen the province’s core competitiveness in science and technology, promote the optimization and upgrading of the consumer electronics industry in the province, and support the implementation of Guangdong Province’s "Guangdong Digital Home Action Plan" and the national science and technology support program "Digital Home and Digital TV Technology Application and Demonstration." This experience hall significantly boosts the implementation of Guangdong’s Digital Home Action Plan and the national science and technology support program. It realizes a tripartite concept of science education, scientific achievement display, and international academic exchange, making the science center an important force in promoting the development of the digital home industry.

The exhibition hall is divided into five zones: Timeline of the Era, Digital Theater, Digital Corridor, Digital Life Theater, and New Product Frontier, featuring a total of 23 exhibits. The most representative ones include the Digital Theater, Barcode ID Registration, Smart Dressing Mirror, Home Healthcare, Virtual Golf, and Interactive Bicycle.

Address: No. 168, Kepu Road, Panyu District, Guangzhou City (formerly West Sixth Road, University Town)

Type: Science and Technology Museum

Rating: AAAA

Recommended Visit Duration: 0.5 day

Tel: 020-39348080

Official Website: http://www.gdsc.cn/

Opening Hours:

Tuesday–Friday 9:30–16:30; Saturday, Sunday, and public holidays 9:30–17:00; closed on Mondays, except during Golden Week holidays.

Ticket Price: 60 RMB

Address: No. 168, West Sixth Road, University Town