Chengjiang Fossil Site Natural History Museum

Chengjiang Fossil Site Natural History Museum
澄江化石地自然博物馆

Address: Xincun Road, Chengjiang county, Yuxi city, Yunnan province
Opening hours: 9 am-5 pm
Closed Mondays
General admission: Free

The Chengjiang Fossil Site Natural History Museum is a large-scale natural history museum and China's first cultural facility built on a fossil site. With Cambrian fossils discovered at Chengjiang as its founding collection, it explains the origins of life, evolution, and biodiversity.

The numerous precious animal fossils discovered in Chengjiang county, Yunnan province vividly show the true marine life of about 520 million years ago. They provide valuable evidence for uncovering the mystery of the Cambrian explosion. Their discovery has been hailed as “one of the most amazing scientific discoveries of the 20th century”, and the Chengjiang fossil site was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 2012.

Covering 42,000 square meters, the Chengjiang Fossil Site Natural History Museum is composed of a gallery building, a dome theater, a visitor center, a research center, and a cultural and creative center. It houses more than 60,000 fossils and specimens from around the world. With the help of VR and smart interactive technologies, the museum engages visitors in interesting visual experiences, presenting the vivid scenes of the Cambrian explosion to describe life evolutionary stories and highlighting the important role of Chengjiang fossils in understanding them.