National Museum of Natural Science

Drawing more than three million visitors a year, the National Museum of Natural Science in Taichung ranks among the most visited museums in Taiwan. Signs and locals often use its Chinese name, 國立自然科學博物館, or simply 科博館.

The museum was built in stages from the mid-1980s and opened fully in the early 1990s. Its complex combines several halls. The Life Science Hall traces the history of life on Earth and includes life-sized dinosaurs. The Human Cultures Hall covers Chinese science and the cultures of Taiwan's Indigenous peoples. The Global Environment Hall looks at the planet's ecosystems, and a dome-screen Space Theater shows films. Next door, a botanical garden centres on a large glass greenhouse that recreates a tropical rainforest. The museum also runs the 921 Earthquake Museum of Taiwan in Wufeng, which preserves a school damaged in the 1999 earthquake.

The museum suits families and school groups especially well. It covers a lot of ground, and seeing the halls and the garden easily fills most of a day.