Founded in 1958, the Beijing Natural History Museum is the largest in China. With an exhibition floor space of 3, 600 square metres, the museum is located at Tianqiao, close to the Temple of Heaven.

The museum is divided into four exhibition halls: flora, fauna, ancient animals and mankind. There are about 10, 000 fossils, specimens and modals on display.

With a large number of archaeological Ends and materials concerning anthropology, paleoanthropology, and anatomy, the hall of mankind tells how human beings came into existence and gradually developed. Visitors see models of Yuanmou Man in Yunnan, Lantian Man in Shaanxi, Peking Man, Dingcun Man in Shanxi, upper Cave Man in Beijing, Homo habilis in Africa, Java Man in Indonesia, Neanderthal Mangy in Germany, and Cro-Magnon Man in France." Origin of Man" is currently on exhibition in the museum. Three hundred photos, $00 exhibitsa, paintings done by celebrated artists and precious specimens vividly illustrate the evolution of man and the complete process of human life, from embrryo and birth to growth and death. Exhibits from foreign countries are also on display in the museum.. They were sent by the American Museum of Natural History in New York, the British Museum, the Muse Natioual d' Histoire Naturelle in France, the Carolina Biological Supply Company in the U.S., and Beppu University in Japan.

In the hall , of ancient animals most impressive- is a complete dinosaur fossil, Hechuansauru's, the largest found so far in China: The giant creature, measuring 22 metres long and, 1,5 metres high, is a herbivore. Another, big dinosaur fossil (Yongchuansaurus, a carnivorous animal), 4 metres high and 9 meters long, lived between 60 million and 20,000 years ago. A fish fossil (Himalayasaurtis), found in the Himalayas, proves that the mountains, including Qomolangma (Mount Everest), were once an expanse of sea. Footprints of dinosaurs have been studied by anthropologists all over the world. The footprints of different dinosaurs found in China are exhibited in the museum. They are important in studying the animal's behavior as well as earth's evolution.

Stone Forest.  Fossil trees hundreds of millions of years old create a forest of sorts in front of the Beijing Natural History Museum. These fossilized trees, 0.3 to 1.2 metres in diameter, were discovered in Northeast China's Liaoning Province. They now occupy 100 square metres in the yard of the museum. One of the trees turned into an arch during the fossilization process. The round trunk became flat and crooked with an uneven diameter. It clearly shows the process of fossilization from wood to silicon or agate.