The Geological Museum of China

The Geological Museum of China
中国地质博物馆

Address: 15 Yangrou Hutong, Xicheng district, Beijing
Website: www.gmc.org.cn/(Cn)
Hours: 9:00-16:30 (no admission after 16:00)
Closed Mondays (except for national holidays)
E-mail: gmcit@sohu.com
General admission: 30 yuan
Tel: (+86-10)66557858

The Geological Museum of China is a national level museum of geological science and ranks as the best geological museum in Asia. It is the earliest geological scientific museum of China and has a construction area of 11,000 square meters. Its lineage can be traced back to the Geological and Mineral Products Exhibition Hall of the Geological Investigation Office founded in 1916.

The museum first opened to the public on October 1, 1959, and was fully reconstructed by the end of 2009. The Geological Museum of China has more than 200,000 geological specimens. Many of them are precious items designated "National Treasures", such as "the Giant Shandong Dinosaur" fossil, the most complete dinosaur fossil extant in the world; the fossils of primitive birds that were found in the west of Liaoning Province, which are of essential value in research on birds of the area; the teeth fossils of Yunnan Yuanmou Man, which shift the emergence of human beings in China to a much earlier time; the stoneware, bone needles and bone decoration unearthed from the site of the Upper Cave men at Zhoukoudian in Beijing; a white crystal of 3.5 tons known as the "King of Crystal"; and a number of mineral specimens with Chinese local characteristics, including cinnabar, realgar, orpiment, scheelite, and stibnite.

The hall of geological resources introduces in different catalogues and classifications the abundant minerals and other geological resources in China, while the hall of global history introduces earth formation and construction and its basic geological nature and actions. The stratum paleontology hall exhibits the Zhendan biome, insect fossils, fish fossils, egg fossils, and the Upper Cave Man -- ancient creatures and their characteristics of different geological eras.
The hall of mineral rocks showcases the beautiful mineral crystals or crystal treasures from China and overseas areas, with more than 1,200 varieties of specimens of over 1,000 mineral products, and over 800 classic specimens of three different kinds of rocks -- magma, alluvial, and transformation. The diamond hall can be divided into four parts, namely diamond, jade, colorful stone and ink stone. It displays the raw and finished stones of common diamonds, the traditional jade and color stone varieties of China and the products and craftworks developed in recent times as well as famous and common ink stones and raw stones in China. It is the earliest and largest-scale diamond exhibition in China and is recognized by the vast number of diamond fans.