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| ARTICLE INFORMATION: Author: Howard Norfolk Title: A Tour of China in Winter, Part 1d: The Beijing Museum of Natural History Summary: The Natural History Museum displays lots of skeletons, and has a small aquarium. Contact for editing purposes: email: comments@aquarticles.com Date first published: January 2005 Publication: Original to Aquarticles Reprinted from Aquarticles: |
ARTICLE USE: Internet publication (club or non-profit web site): 1. Credit author, original publication, and Aquarticles. 2. Link to http://www.aquarticles.com and original website if applicable. 3. Advise Aquarticles Printed publication: Mail one printed copy to: Jim Norfolk 4131 Bonavista Crescent Burlington, Ontario L7M 4 J3 And one copy to: Aquarticles.com #205 - 5525 West Boulevard Vancouver, British Columbia V6M 3W6 Canada Note: Photos have been re-sized for fast loading. Higher resolution photos can be supplied if required. |
A Tour of China in Winter By Howard Norfolk I had some spare time in Beijing and wanted to visit a museum. The National Museum of Chinese History is conveniently beside Tianenmen Square, but I figured I'd be seeing plenty of Ming vases and figurines elsewhere on my tour, so I checked what other museums Beijing had to offer. My 8th Edition Lonely Planet China guidebook said that in the Beijing Natural History Museum "some exhibits, such as the spliced human cadavers and genitalia, are best viewed on an empty stomach" and that "other exhibition halls offer a ghastly menagerie of creatures suspended in formaldehyde." That sounded intriguing to me, so I asked Billy our guide to take us there.
Click on photos for enlargements, then go 'BACK' : Unfortunately the guidebook was out of date. All the exhibits have recently been refurbished, and weren't anything like what the guidebook said! But I did find some things that interested me, and I took photos of them:
Other floors of the museum covered every form of life...
Other life forms had their own galleries...
There was a sign leading to 'the aquarium.' Since fish tanks leak, it was wisely relegated to the basement. We descended some narrow stairs.
The rest of the aquarium consisted of two rooms with rows of tanks like this:
I had been hoping to see more of the native fish of China (China has 400 species), perhaps in their natural surroundings, but apart from these Myxocyprinus asiaticus I was disappointed! The tanks were mostly bare-bottomed with no decoration, and they were lightly stocked with fish that could have been bought in any aquarium store (and presumably were).
I am sure that what happened was that all the city's best aquarists left to join the superb new Beijing Aquarium, leaving just the janitor or someone in charge here! Perhaps they took the best fish and decorations with them too. I imagine the city blew its 'aquarium budget' on the new facility, and the Mayor told the people here "No more money for you!" The Human Evolution Gallery was much more impressive...
Finally, the gift shop had a display of aesthetically pleasing souvenirs.
A last word:
Billy, our guide, took some time off while my friend and I were in the museum. He said he'd been there already with his class when he was at school. But I was glad that I'd visited the Natural History Museum of Beijing, and believe me, I did later see enough Ming vases and figurines to last a lifetime! From Beijing we took the overnight sleeper train to the historic city of Xi'an in the centre of China.... Go to the next in this series: The whole Tour of China in Winter series: Or, back to:
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