China Science and Technology Museum: From yesterday to tomorrow

（CRI Online）  16:31, April 02, 2013  

Although the consensus claims that China missed the industrial revolution, technology in China is today playing a catch-up game like no other. Joining the space race has just been the icing on the cake; the more concrete evidence of technology in China can be seen in the lives of its citizens. Smartphones aside, general knowledge about the sciences and technology is zooming upwards, and the China Science and Technology Museum is a reflection of this phenomenon.

The shiny new incarnation of the Science and Technology Museum opened in 2009. Four extensive floors arrange themselves around a central atrium, each with its own theme: Sci-tech and Life, Exploration and Discovery, Challenges and the Future, and The Glory of China.

An overload of information with hands-on displays and exhibits all compete for visitors' attention. The first floor focuses on China's inventions of the compass, gunpowder and papermaking and printing processes. But the excitement lies on the floors above.

At the particularly popular stations where science and amusement parks intersect, queues can grow pretty long: buckling up and spinning around in a gyroscope is an opportunity that's hard to pass up (though definitely enough to make this reporter queasy).

Other more active stations allow guests to ride a bike that uses a fan to propel itself forwards, or to flounce about a moonscape in a counterbalanced chair.

For more entertainment, a tight schedule of demonstrations throughout the museum takes place about every half hour, with as many as five starting at the same time. An electromagnetic performance invites audience members and their hair to nervously get electrified. Liquid nitrogen demonstrations freeze attendees' disbelief. A paper-making workshop gets kids' hands down and dirty.