PLACE GUIDE

Shanghai Natural History Museum 上海自然博物馆

Shanghai Ziran Bowuguan

Shanghai Natural History Museum occupies a purpose-built home in Jing’an Sculpture Park.

Shanghai Natural History Museum · 上海自然博物馆. Photo: 2015-12-05 05:54:17.
Shanghai Natural History Museum · 上海自然博物馆. Photo: 2015-12-05 05:54:17. · Another Believer · CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo adjustments

Converted to WebP and resized without changing the subject or cropping the source frame.

Explore the region

Shanghai · 上海市 →Jing'an District · 静安区 →

About Shanghai Natural History Museum

It moved here in 2015 from the former Cotton Exchange building, so old directions to East Yan’an Road refer to a different site.

Its collections cover animals, plants, minerals and prehistoric material. The museum visit can be paired with the outdoor sculpture park to contrast scientific display with public art. Choose the subjects that interest you and check the current exhibition arrangement rather than relying on historic gallery lists or collection totals.

The museum was established in 1956 in the Shanghai Cotton Exchange Building, a classical British-style structure built in 1923 at 260 East Yan'an Road in Huangpu District, which the Shanghai Municipal Government designated a Heritage Building in 1994. The elevated Yan'an Road was later built close in front of the building. In the early 2000s the museum was administratively merged into the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum, becoming known as the Shanghai Natural History Museum branch of the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum, and it moved to its purpose-built 44,517-square-meter home in Jing'an Sculpture Park in 2015.

The collection comprises about 240,000 specimens, including more than 62,000 animal specimens, 135,000 plant specimens, 700 Stone Age items and 1,700 mineral specimens, along with species otherwise unrecorded outside China, such as a Yellow River mammoth, a giant salamander, a giant panda and a Yangtze alligator. Its largest exhibit is a 140-million-year-old skeleton of Mamenchisaurus hochuanensis, over four storeys tall, from Sichuan province; the museum also holds two mummies and several human embryos.

What to look for

  • Animal, plant and mineral material gives the museum a broad natural-history scope.
  • The purpose-built museum sits within Jing’an Sculpture Park.

Background & history

The Shanghai Natural History Museum (Chinese: 上海自然博物馆; pinyin: Shànghǎi Zìrán Bówùguǎn; Shanghainese: Zånhae Zyzoe Pohvehguoe) is a museum dedicated to natural history in the city of Shanghai. It is one of the largest museums of natural sciences in China. Formerly housed in the Shanghai Cotton Exchange Building, the museum was moved to a purpose-built site in the Jing'an Sculpture Park in 2015.

Excerpt from Wikipedia: Shanghai Natural History Museum · Wikipedia contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected introductory sentences; formatting simplified. Background information, not current visitor-service advice.

Location & getting there

Getting to Shanghai Natural History Museum

Approach the museum at 510 Beijing West Road in Jing’an Sculpture Park. Avoid older directions to the former East Yan’an Road location.

General visit reminders

Use the Chinese name and exact local address when arranging your arrival. A city, district or neighbourhood can cover a wide area, so choose the particular streets or venues you want to visit and group nearby stops together. Check onward and return connections before committing to a distant extension.

Combine your visit

A suggested sequence linking the specific features of this visit.

  1. Natural-history collections

    Focus on the animal, plant or mineral subjects that interest you.

  2. Jing’an Sculpture Park静安雕塑公园

    Continue outside to the public artworks and gardens surrounding the museum.

This order is editorial. Confirm access and any transfers between stops; it does not establish a walking route, same-day connection or common admission ticket.

AI illustration: AI illustration: mineral crystal faces; general detail, not an actual photograph.
AI illustration · AI 示意图（景观类型参考，非实拍） · 矿物晶面与基岩 — A general visiting detail, not an exact view of this place.
Museums, art & science · 博物馆／艺术科技 →

Find Shanghai Natural History Museum

上海自然博物馆 · 静安区

Amap · 高德地图Approximate pin · 近似位置Apple Maps · 苹果地图

The pin marks the area, not the entrance.

More places nearby

Approximate straight-line distances between map pins, not travel distances.

Jing'an Sculpture Park 静安雕塑公园

Less than 1 km away

Jing’an Sculpture Park combines outdoor art with lawns and planted space around Shanghai Natural History Museum. The works are distributed through a public park rather than arranged as a single indoor gallery sequence.

View guide →

Shanghai History Museum 上海市历史博物馆

Less than 1 km away

Shanghai History Museum occupies the former Race Club building on West Nanjing Road. The neoclassical clubhouse and its tall tower are part of the city history the museum interprets.

View guide →

Sihang Warehouse 四行仓库

Less than 1 km away

Sihang Warehouse stands beside Suzhou Creek and is associated with the final phase of the Battle of Shanghai in 1937. A Chinese battalion held the building while other forces withdrew westward.

View guide →

Sources & visit information

The sources below support the place-specific description and arrival information. Suggested combinations are editorial planning ideas; confirm current opening, entry arrangements and transport services for your date.

Visitor information adapted and edited from Wikipedia contributors, “Shanghai Natural History Museum” · CC BY-SA 4.0. Source revision 1363438630.

Visitor information adapted and edited from Wikivoyage contributors, listing “Shanghai Natural History Museum” · CC BY-SA 4.0.

Background paragraphs translated and condensed from Wikipedia contributors, "上海自然博物馆", Chinese Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0. Source revision 89736249.

Background paragraphs condensed from Wikipedia contributors, "Shanghai Natural History Museum", English Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0. Source revision 1363438630.

China Revealed · Editorially updated 2026-10-07