Address: Jing’An, China, 200041
This is the one place we wanted to bring our Lil girl to in Shanghai. We decided to forgo Shanghai Disneyland since beyond having Mickey and Minnie in some of her utensils, our daughter hadn’t really been exposed to the allure of the House that Mouse Built. And it costs a bomb to go… On the other hand, the little one loves dinosaurs and the Shanghai Natural History Museum is pretty much built around its dinosaur exhibits, so it was a no brainer for us.
The one big winning feature of the museum was its gigantic dinosaur exhibits. This consisted of replica fossil displays but the greatest attraction for the kiddos had to be the animatronic brontosaurus that was displayed at the main exhibition space (see below).
When the Lil One first saw it move, she was squealing and waving her hands as if she was a groupie seeing her pop idol performing. The photo below was taken during the umpteenth encore by the dino superstar — there was no sign of the enthusiasm fading. We had to set a time limit for her to leave the “concert”….
Besides dinosaurs, there were also many exhibits of replica animal specimens. Some of these were of current animals and others of prehistoric animals. Quite a sprawling space. The building is actually a large underground space which probably went 7-8 floors down. So when we entered, we had to make our way downwards instead of upwards. Quite an interesting architecture — this article that described the building much better than I ever could.
It was a great place to spend the time with our kiddo. It was nice seeing her enjoy it so much — the joy reminded me of when she first played with a bubble gun as a toddler….
Signing off here. Thanks for reading. Will leave you with what I thought were the best pictures representing the breadth and scale of this museum. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays Everyone!
Ask the Clueless Middle Age Dad 