Beijing Natural History Museum

The main entrance to this overblown, creeper-laden museum, closed for refurbishment at the time of research, is hung with portraits of the great natural historians, including Darwin and Linnaeus. The contents range from dinosaur fossils and skeletons, including a mamenchisaurus jingyanensis – a vast sauropod that once roamed China – to creepy-crawlies, an aquarium with Nemo-esque clown fish and an exhibition on the origins of life on earth. Make sure your children don’t wander unaccompanied into the creepy Hall of Human Bodies, where a ghoulish selection of spliced human cadavers and genitalia awaits.