Anmyondo Jurassic Museum

Anmyondo Jurassic Museum is a natural history museum in Nam-myeon, Taean, on the road into Anmyeondo island, and it is often cited for having Korea's largest collection of genuine dinosaur fossils. Since opening on 5 July 2011 it has drawn an average of about 200,000 visitors a year, making it the best-known dinosaur museum on the west coast. From a Diplodocus out of the Morrison Formation in the USA to dinosaur eggs from Argentina, you can see real fossils up close – a good stop on a family trip along the west coast.

Galleries of real fossils

The museum spreads dinosaurs and other natural history specimens over three floors. In the central hall large skeletons stand under a high ceiling, and looking down from the balconies on each floor gives you a sense of their scale.

• Diplodocus and Suuwassea: long-necked sauropods from the Morrison Formation, Jurassic rocks being excavated in the American West.
• Dinosaur eggs: fossil eggs excavated in Argentina.
• Reptiles of sky and sea: complete skeletons of the pterosaur Ornithocheirus and the long-necked plesiosaur Elasmosaurus fill the air and walls.
• Cenozoic mammals: skeletons of Gomphotherium, a distant relative of elephants, and Platybelodon, with its shovel-shaped lower jaw.

Media hall and observatory

Next to the main building is a media hall where augmented reality, VR, trick art and films bring the age of dinosaurs to life, and Taean county's Shooting Star Sky Park observatory is right alongside. There you can look at the sun by day and the seasonal constellations by night, and hear star stories in the planetarium. The outdoor dinosaur park has models, a plant garden and children's play equipment, and in the basement education room children can try fossil digging and dinosaur model making. A cinema on the third floor runs four dinosaur puppet films made by the museum, and special exhibitions are held every year. In 2013 the museum was certified by the Ministry of Education as an outstanding education-donation institution, and it has kept running outreach classes in schools.

Tripto tips

• Time needed: 90 minutes for the museum alone; around 3 hours with the media hall, outdoor park and observatory.
• Opening hours: all year 09:30–17:30 (tickets and entry until 16:30). Closed on Mondays (or the next day when Monday is a public holiday) and on Lunar New Year's Day and Chuseok, but open every day in the summer peak season.
• Fees: museum only, adults KRW 13,000, teenagers KRW 11,000, children (36 months–13 years) KRW 10,000. Combined tickets with the media hall and observatory are available. Card payment only, and you will be given a wristband to wear before entering. There is a nursing room on the third floor.
• Getting there: by public transport you need a bus from Taean Bus Terminal towards Anmyeondo, which takes time. Driving is easiest, and there is a car park.
• Combine it with: a short drive south over Anmyeon Bridge takes you onto Anmyeondo. Pair it with the sunset at Kkotji Beach or the Anmyeondo Recreational Forest.