Chengdu Natural History Museum opened in 2022 near the Chengdu University of Technology in the eastern part of the city. It is a large, modern museum built around the natural history of Sichuan, and its architecture is modelled on the snow-capped peaks of western Sichuan, with a faceted stone-clad exterior and a full-height atrium inside.
Dinosaurs and palaeontology
The dinosaur gallery is the centrepiece and the reason most families go. Sichuan is one of the most productive regions in the world for Jurassic dinosaur fossils, and the museum displays mounted skeletons of large plant-eaters and predators found in the province, along with eggs, trackways and skull material. The mounts are well lit in a large hall, and the sequence follows the animals from the Triassic through to the end of the Cretaceous. There are also fossil fish, early reptiles, and an extensive collection of invertebrate fossils.
Life and environment
The museum also covers the living world, with displays on Sichuan's wildlife - giant pandas, golden monkeys, takin and snow leopards - and on the province's forests, rivers and wetlands. There are habitat reconstructions, taxidermy and interactive exhibits. Because Sichuan spans a huge range of altitude within a short distance, from subtropical basin to high alpine, the biodiversity section is unusually rich, and it is a good preparation for travelling west.
