Wouldn’t we all like for our kids to enjoy museums, stroll around calmly while admiring the exhibitions, and more importantly, allowing us to do just that? Naive? 100% but one can dream! Some museums do a great job at engaging younger visitors. Others not so much and you end up spending more time being whined at and chasing your kids around than actually looking at artefacts. Is it worth bringing kids to Guangdong Museum then?

Let me start by saying that I don’t think every museum has to be appealing to kids. In fact, it would be wrong for some to try and make it kid-friendly as the subject content might simply be too heavy. On the other hand, there are those venues that cater specifically to children, e.g. Metro or Tunnel Museums in Guangzhou, where kids really do have fun whilst learning. We have an abundance of cultural and historical venues as well as various art museums to choose from here and I, for one, would love to expose my son to some of the fantastic exhibits. One has to careful though, as based on my past experience, when I spent the entire museum visit running around after my son like a headless chicken and saw almost NOTHING, taught me that taking a young kid to a museum that doesn’t have much to offer for children is no fun. (As a side note: that happened in Humen Opium War Museum, Dongguan, which is actually really good!)

Guangdong Museum is a massive, immediately-recognizable brick-like structure right next to the Guangzhou Library (which is great for kids!). It looks like a ginormous space ship straight out of Star Wars, which may appeal to young kids, but once you’re inside, there isn’t that much there to amuse the little ones, in my opinion. Now, when I say little ones, I mean kids aged anywhere between 3 and 8. Naturally, there are exceptions and lucky you if you’re a parent of a kid that calmly accompanies you while you’re exploring the various exhibitions on different floors. For most of us parents, though, bringing children to Guangdong Museum is only a success if we take them straight to the dinosaur and sea creatures section.

Those parts are great! My son was amazed by the numerous dino skeletons and fossils. He also loved the hanging sharks! If your child is into dinosaurs or sharks, I would encourage you to bring your kids along! Very impressive, however I must say that these areas offer little information easily understood by young kids. The displays, though visually attractive and interesting, are not interactive at all, there are limited visual or sound effects, which I believe could really bring these two floors to life and make it much more engaging and memorable for children, who would, in turn, get more out of their visit. Would I bring my child again? Maybe, but only once he’s older and more mature so we could see other parts of the museum. So far, his favourite bit about this museum was the shop…

Having said that, perhaps the management of Guangdong Museum simply doesn’t want to make their exhibitions more child-friendly. Like I mentioned-not every museum has to aim to please families and that’s absolutely fine. There are plenty of fantastic exhibitions there to interest any adult, from jade sculptures to stunning porcelain! I do know, though, that every week hundreds of school pupils visit this venue so wouldn’t it make sense to make certain areas more interesting and educational for that age group? There is the ‘drawing room’ upstairs but I suspect it’s more for little kids to be occupied with something while their parents explore the museum rather than entertaining and educating actual kids. Maybe my expectations are too high…

I don’t want to sound like I don’t like Guangdong Museum because I truly do. I have seen some wonderful exhibitions there over the years (most notably the Ancient Rome artefacts and Chaozhou wood carvings ones!) but I have also been to several other museums, which make a great effort to attract and interest whole families, creating immersive, modern environments full of kid-friendly educational resources and perhaps it is because of that I find myself unable to describe this very important institution as suitable for young kids. Not as a whole. In fact, I had an opportunity to ask several 12 year olds about their visits to Guangdong Museum and all unanimously claimed it was boring. I may not be a mother of a teenager yet but I know that to this age group almost everything is boring, however I can kind of see their point and it proves that even most teens would struggle to engage with the collections.

My advice would be-go for the dinosaurs and sharks, your kid will love it, they might like the minerals and crystals top floor, too, but bear in mind, that’s probably it for them, in most cases. Then go again but without kids and enjoy all of the amazing stuff that’s on offer for grown ups:)

Do you have a different opinion about Guangdong Museum? Did I miss something child-friendly there? Let me know!

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Info:

Address: 2 Zhujiang E Rd, Tianhe, Guangzhou

Opening times: 9-5pm, Tuesday to Sunday (closed Mondays!) with special longer opening hours in July and August(this article is about what special events are likely to take place in those months). Remember to make an appointment online on museum’s Wechat mini programme in advance(in English-have your passport on hand). You won’t enter without it as it is unlikely there will be spaces on the day, this museum is always busy. The queue is on the RIGHT side of the gate and you must bring your passport/ID to be checked against your online booking. Kids below 1.4m enter without a ticket.

Getting there: Best way is to take metro Line 3 to Zhujiang New Town and walk few hundred metres towards Huacheng Square or take APM line to Guangzhou Opera station. The museum, Guangzhou Opera and Guangzhou Library are all located around Haucheng Square.

Parking: on site or at Mall of the World.

Price: Free with the exception of special, temporary exhibitions which require a ticket; average price is 80rmb pp. If you wish to see those, go directly to the customer service point on the LEFT of the main gate and get your ticket there. Remember your passport/ID.

Food: There is a café on ground floor but I haven’t checked it out. On one of the upper floors there is a small 7/11 type store and a canteen with very basic meals. I think it’s more for those, who brought their own food to have somewhere to eat it. To be perfectly honest, I’m shocked that a museum of this calibre would have such an unappealing eatery with very disinterested staff. Shame. Luckily there are hundreds of eating places around – in the sprawling underground food mecca that is Mall of the World or in K11 mall.

Facilities: Toilets on each floor though very limited. There is a lift for those with mobility problems and prams. There are some benches in corridors to rest on. Audio guides in various languages are available for 20rmb from main reception. Free guided tours are only run in Mandarin.

Age: The two floors, I focused on in this post, are very suitable for kids aged 2-10; the rest of the museum is unlikely to appeal to most kids.

Tips:

-Don’t go on a Friday-that’s the school trip day so unless you want to be surrounded by hordes of very rowdy and/or disinterested students, choose another day:)

-Keep an eye out for any special events taking place on May 18th-World Museum Day.