A panda skull is seen at the exhibition. [Photo by Gao Erqiang/China Daily]

"We have not only brought the original specimens from the former Royal Asiatic Society, but also arranged the exhibition according to historical documents and pictures," said Huang Ji, curator of the exhibition and a scholar at the Shanghai Museum of Natural History.

"The original building of the Asiatic Society Museum is occupied, so we can't have the exhibition in the original location," said Wang Xiaoming, director of the Shanghai History Museum. "Our museum, which is a historical architecture that has been around since the 1930s, is seen as an ideal venue."

An academic forum titled "The spirit of natural history in the metropolis" is also ongoing. The event features museum directors and administrators from all over China discussing about the history of museology and how museums impact urban culture.

Zheng Yiyi contributed to this story.