The museum is closed on Mondays, but it’s open from 9:00 to 4:30 all other days. It’s located at 40 Heishijiao Nishimura St., in Shahekou District. It’s right on the coast next to the Xinghai Bay Scenic Spot, and when you’re finished with the museum you can follow the boardwalk all the way to the city center: Xinhai Square. The boardwalk follows the beaches and curves up a rock face before depositing you behind the beachfront water park. From here you can see the Ferris wheal, roller coaster, and Century City Sculpture – landmarks of the city center.  

The museum is incredibly visual. On the main floor is the dinosaur exhibit where you will see graphic models of huge dinosaurs mowing down on one another. These exhibits are a must see for any child under the age of 10. I remember them fondly from my youth. Also on the main floor is an Earth exhibit, which is basically a big collection of rocks. If you can’t read Chinese it’s a bit of a bore. But at least it has a nice volcano model for the kids.  

In the basement is an Africa exhibit where you will walk through a room that slowly changes from African jungle to African desert and contains a model of almost every exotic creature you could think of – some of them strangely out of place.  

On the second floor you will be confronted with a room full of about 5 life-size models of whales: e.g., a blue whale next to a humpback whale for comparison. There’s also a little snack bar in case you want to take a break. And there’s a third-floor gallery ringing this room so you can check out the whales from another angle. At the back there’s a separate exhibit on sharks. 

On the third floor there are a few exhibits shooting off the corners of the gallery. There was a Swine flu exhibit when I visited, but this one was temporary. In the other corners -there was a North American animals exhibit, a wetlands exhibit, and an in-renovation exhibit.