Beijing Museum of Natural History, Natural history museum in Tiantan Subdistrict, China

The Beijing Museum of Natural History is a natural history museum in the Tiantan Subdistrict of Beijing, with galleries covering paleontology, zoology, botany, and anthropology. The collections hold around 200,000 scientific specimens spread across several exhibition floors.

The museum began in 1951 as the Central Museum of Natural History, set up by the Ministry of Culture and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, with Pei Wenzhong as head of the preparatory office. Its Tianqiao South Street building opened in 1959 with the name inscribed by Guo Moruo. Transferred to the Beijing city government in 1962, it was renamed the Beijing Museum of Natural History. In June 2023 it took the name National Natural History Museum of China, though it remains a municipal institution, not a national museum.

The museum sits close to the Temple of Heaven and draws many school groups and families who come to explore the natural world together. The exhibits are laid out so that visitors of all ages can get a close look at the objects on display.

The museum is easy to reach from Tianqiao metro station, and its location near the Temple of Heaven makes it simple to combine with a visit to the surrounding area. Weekdays tend to be less crowded than weekends, when many school groups and families arrive.

The paleontology galleries display complete skeletons of Mamenchisaurus, one of the longest dinosaurs ever found in Asia, giving visitors a rare chance to see these giants up close. Alongside them, the museum also shows remains of Paraceratherium, the largest land mammal known to have existed.