By Huang Lan

Zhejiang Natural Museum has opened to the general public recently. It is a part of the West Lake Culture Square in the heart of Hangzhou downtown. Local residents are flocking to the museum to take a look at wonders of nature.

The West Lake Culture Square sits in the very heart of Hangzhou. The centers central tower stands at 173 meters high while the compound measures 200 mu with an overall floor space of 350,000 m2 including an underground space of 149,000 m2. The square, an investment of 2.2 billion yuan, is considered the flagship of cultural programs of Zhejiang province.

The new museum is designed to stand out as a first-rate museum where the public can look at nature and man, learn about science and ecology, conduct research and get education, and hang out for leisure.

The Culture Square consists of 10 function areas. It will serve as a center of culture, recreation, film, communication, conference and exhibition, office and shopping. There will be a tunnel of time and space where the audience can experience 13.7 billion years and the universe.

The Zhejiang West Lake Museum, founded in 1927, was the predecessor of the Zhejiang Natural Museum. The first part that opened to the general public on July 28, 2009 is in Zone B of the Culture Square. The museum sits in a 26,000-m2 area, large enough to house its huge collection of nearly 130,000 exhibits.

The first part of the exhibition at the museum is about dinosaurs. The whole exhibition from first floor to the third floor serves as an encyclopedia that tells the story of fauna and flora of the earth. About 5,000 exhibits are on display now, about 3,000 more than previously displayed on the old site of the museum.

The whole exhibition is a gala of restored scenes and exhibits, bringing visitors back to the past of the earth and the universe. Visitors are thrilled by restored scenes made vivid and exciting in multimedia.

The exhibition pulls in large crowds of children every day now.