Museum's past inspires showcase of the future

Every year, the museum launches exhibitions with different themes and many science education activities, such as Night at the Museum and Little Docents.

In 1980, the museum's former directors — Pei, Xu Ren, Zheng Zuoxin and Zhou Mingzhen — wrote an article in the journal China Nature, calling for establishing a State-level natural history museum. Since then, many experts have echoed the call.

In 2006, Li Chengsen, the then-director of the Beijing Museum of Natural History, suggested establishing a national natural history museum. The suggestion got support from 26 academicians, who wrote a letter to the State Council, China's cabinet.

During the two sessions — the National People's Congress and the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference — in 2019, Zhao Jindong, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, sent a proposal to build a State-level natural history museum, and later that year, the National Cultural Heritage Administration responded that the administration supported the establishment of the national natural history museum with the project under research.

In January, the Beijing Museum of Natural History was officially permitted to be named the National Natural History Museum of China. For Meng Qingjin, senior researcher and director of the National Natural History Museum of China, the establishment of the museum marks a new page in the country's development of the sector.