Tianjin Natural History Museum Description

The Tianjin Museum, like many new things in China, is out to impress from the get-go. It’s in a colossal building shaped like a swan (the second-largest in China, with over 150,000 exhibits), in a vast plaza surrounded by equally imposing buildings. It’s the typical procedure here: ancient artifacts, followed by jade, porcelain and calligraphy, moving onto Tianjin’s recent history, a display room – sadly closed on our visit – which we imagine offers the most interesting stuff, given turn-of-the-20th-century Tianjin’s apparent displeasure at hosting nine concession areas.