The Museum of Herpetology and Herbarium was founded in 1958, and is becoming a multifunctional installation for scientific research, collection, scientific knowledge popularization and academic exchanges. As a leading museum of that kind in China, it has established long-term cooperative relationships with quite some world-known museums and research institutions. The museum has been designated as a national-level (as well as provincial and city levels) base for popularizing sciences among the youth.

The museum houses nearly 100,000 specimens of amphibians and reptiles, accounting for 90% of the amphibian species and 85% of the reptile species distributed in China. It boasts over 90% of the type specimens of the new species published by Chinese scientists. The museum's collection of amphibians and reptiles ranks the first in China and the second in Asia. It is also distinguished for its plant specimens from the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, especially from the Hengduan Mountains, storing up to some 250,000 specimens of vascular plants from over 6300 species (including 270 type specimens of about 160 species) and 900 fungal specimens. 

E-mail: arcib@cib.ac.ac.cn, (Museum of Herpetology)

　　　　 xfgao@cib.ac.cn　  (Museum of Herbarium)