（1）Preparatory Stage

China Science and Technology Museum, which was originally named Central Science Museum, started the preparation in the year of 1958. Approved by Premier Zhou Enlai and Vice-Premier Nie Rongzhen, its construction was listed as one of 10 most important infrastructures built for the 10th anniversary of the establishment of modern China. However, the project was then cancelled in order to save capital and materials for the construction of Great Hall of the People.

At the National Science Conference in 1978, a group of senior scientists including Mao Yisheng and Qian Xuesen brought up the proposal of the construction of China Science and Technology Museum again. With the direct care and support from central leadership including Deng Xiaoping and Fang Yi, State Development Planning Commission of the PRC approved the proposal, and set up the China Science and Technology Museum Preparatory Commission which was led by Mao to make preparations.

In 1983, Mao and other great scientists brought up the proposal of speeding up the construction of China Science and Technology Museum at the National People’s Congress, which gained the strong support of Yao Yilin, Wan Li and other central leadership of the Communist Party and the government. In July, State Development Planning Commission of the People's Republic of China approved the tentative design of making it one of the programs in the seventh Five-Year Plan and dividing the construction into two stages. In November, 1984, Deng Xiaoping inscribed the name of China Science and Technology Museum. On November the 21st of the same year, ground was broken on the first-stage project of the Museum, with Yao Yilin cutting the ribbon at the opening of the construction.

(2)The First-Stage Project

The first-stage constructional project covered an area of 20 thousand m2, consisting of Comprehensive Business Building, the First-Stage Exhibition Hall, and the Dome Theater. The former two were completed in August, 1988, and officially opened to the public on September 22nd of the same year. The latter one was completed in May, 1994, and officially opened to the public in August, 1995.

On September 22nd, 1988, a grand opening ceremony was held for China Science and Technology Museum. People from all over the world attended the ceremony, including the secretary of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee Rui Xingwen, the State Councilor and Director of State Scientific and Technological Commission Song Jian, the Vice-chairman of CPPCC Fang Yi, the Vice-chairman of the CPPCC and Chairman of the CAST Qian Xuesen, the Vice-chairman of the CAST He Kang, and the secretaries of the Secretariat of the CAST Gao Zhenning, Cao Lingzhong and Li Baoheng.

After the first-stage project opened to the public, China Science and Technology Museum persisted in macro-level development strategy of “setting goals, furthering reforming, planning three years ahead, visualizing five years ahead” It also preserved in the educational ideology centering on science, and deepening the construction of self-operated business. Based on the two permanent exhibition halls called Modern Basic Knowledge of Science and Chinese Ancient & Traditional Technologies, the Museum had bold exploration and practice to carry out various educational activities of science popularization such as temporary exhibitions, lectures for science popularization, scientific and technological training, and manual garden. These activities played an active role in promoting scientific spirits and thoughts, proposing scientific methods and popularizing scientific knowledge, which made noticeable achievements in the field of science popularization.

With the Dome Theater completed and opened to the public in August, 1995, China Science and Technology Museum added the new exhibition hall Modern Telecommunication Technology to the original exhibitions in the first-stage project in 1996, and established Intel Computer Little Doctor Studio and Manual Garden. The number of visitors grew year by year from hundreds of thousand a year to more than four hundred thousand a year. Up to the end of 1999, China Science and Technology Museum has welcome 4.346 million visitors. In terms of annual number of visitors, the Museum took the lead among all the science and technology museums in China, and in terms of the number of visitors of a unit area, the Museum came out in front among the famous science and technology museums all over the world then. Also, some special exhibitions, like Cloning Technology and Revolutionary Technology—IT, developed by the Museum to go with the hot topics of that time, travelled all over China, attracting over 1.4 million visitors totally. Besides, traditional foreign exchanging project Exhibitions of Traditional Techniques in Ancient China has toured to such European cities as Swiss, Britain, Germany, Belgium and Italy with more than 1 million visitors in a decade from 1988 to 1998.

(3)The Second-Stage Project

With the rapid growth of national economy and the development of science and technology, the first-stage project of China Science and Technology Museum could no longer match the status of national science and technology museum given the scale, content, function and image.

In March, 1995, Xu Jialu and other 44 deputies to the National People's Congress brought up the suggestion To Complete the Construction of the Main Project of China Science and Technology Museum by the End of This Century at the Third Meeting of the Eighth National People's Congress. Meanwhile, Gao Zhenning and other 26 CPPCC members brought up the same proposal at the Third Meeting of the Eighth CPPCC. In March, 1996, at the Forth Meeting of the Eighth National People's Congress, Lu Jiaxi, He Kang and other 112 deputies to the National People's Congress put forward the motion To List China Science and Technology Museum as National Key Project, Implement the Investment, and Make Sure the Museum Is Completed within the Ninth Five-year Period. At the Forth Meeting of the Eighth CPPCC, Zhang Kaixun and other 108 CPPCC members brought up the proposal Eagerly Expect the Party Central Committee and the State Council to Complete China Science and Technology Museum within the Ninth Five-year Period. Chen Nanxian and other 67 CPPCC members brought up the proposal “China Science and Technology Museum should Be Listed as the Ninth Five-year National Key Project”. On August 15th of the same year, Wu Jieping, Qian Weichang, Qian Zhengying, Zhu Guangya, Qian Xuesen, Lu Jiaxi and other 13 famous scientists at home and abroad submitted a jointly-signed letter to Chairman Jiang Zeming and Premier Li Peng to show their wish to complete the construction of China Science and Technology Museum as soon as possible.

In November, 1996, State Development Planning Commission of the PRC approved the master plan to build a 45 thousand m2 extension to China Science and Technology Museum. According to the plan, the project was divided into 2 stages, namely the second stage and the third stage. The latter one would continue after the former one completed. After being completed, the Museum would have covered 65 thousand m2, making it one of the world’s large-scale science and technology museums and science centers.

After prepared for more than one year, the second phase of the new exhibition hall which was listed as the present sent by the capital Beijing for the 50th Anniversary of the People's Republic of China started the construction on February 24th, 1998. Lei Jieqiong, Lu Jiaxi, Vice Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, Qian Zhengying and Zhu Guangya, Vice Chairman of the CPPCC National Committee, attended the commencement ceremony while Zhou Guangzhao, Vice Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, President of China Association for Science and Technology, gave a speech on it.

The new exhibition hall was completed as planned on September 17th 1999 before National Day, and opened to the public on April 29th 2000 officially. General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee, State President Jiang Zemin wrote a message for the second phase of the new China Science and Technology Museum, reading We should promote the scientific spirit, disseminate the scientific knowledge, and spread the scientific thinking and method. Vice Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, President of China Association for Science and Technology, Zhou Guangzhao, Vice Chairman of the CPPCC National Committee Zhu Guangya and Party Secretary of Beijing Jia Qinglin, Mayor of Beijing Liu Qi attended the opening ceremony and cut the ribbon. On the opening day, Member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, Vice Premier Wen Jiabao also made a special trip to China Science and Technology Museum to give congratulation and was showed to visit the new exhibition hall by President of China Association for Science and Technology Zhou Guangzhao, and Vice President Zhang Yutai.

The second phase of the new exhibition hall has five floors, whose building area comes to 23 thousand m2. Modern science and technology is displayed from the first to third floors, and on the fourth floor is the exhibition area for Ancient Chinese Achievements in Science and Technology. The fifth floor is the temporary gallery to display some short-term special exhibitions.

The construction and opening of the second stage project has promoted the science popularization to a higher level. The opening coincided with the first Golden Holiday Week of International Labor Day in China, which made the new exhibition hall popular at most. From the official opening ceremony on April 29th to the end of Golden Holiday Week on May 7th which accounts for 9 days in all, there were 150 thousand visitors while almost 130 thousand visited the new exhibition hall, and 20 thousand visited the Dome Theatre. It was an unprecedented pomp since 1988 in which China Science and Technology Museum was built. What is more precious is that since opened, China Science and Technology Museum has always been popular with sustainable development.

While the second phase of the new exhibition hall came into use and played the role of the main hall, the former first phase of the exhibition hall was used to hold various special exhibitions. In 2001, China Science and Technology Museum invested a lot and rebuilt the second and third floor of the first phase of the exhibition hall into a children's science paradise, aiming to the children aged from 3 to 10. It encouraged children to play after thinking and learn from games. Children could learn the basic scientific knowledge and skills while they were free to play and explore as they liked. At the same time, it can inspire their imagination, develop their brains and cultivate their interest in sciences.

(4)The Construction of the New Museum

After the second phase of the new exhibition hall opened to the public, we focused on the plan of the third phase according to the general planning approved by State Development Planning Commission. The department concerned drafted the proposal of the third phase of China Science and Technology Museum which designed the continuous construction of the third phase in real earnest. In October, 2001, China Association for Science and Technology and Beijing Development Planning Commission compared the pros and cons over the three optional plans, and finally they agreed that the best plan was to build in different place.

On 12th June, 2002, Member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, Beijing Communist Party Secretary Jia Qinglin, Mayor of Beijing Liu Qi, Vice Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, President of The China Association for Science and Technology Zhou Zhaoguang, Vice President of China Association for Science and Technology, Party secretary and First Secretary of the Secretariat Zhang Yutai, Vice President of China Association for Science and Technology, Party Secretary and Secretary of the Secretariat Xu Shanyan made agreement after talking about the construction of the third phase of China Science and Technology Museum: To accept the plan to build in different place and build the new China Science and Technology Museum in Olympic Park. The scale of construction was 120 thousand m2 and the investment was 1.2 billion RMB Yuan which was funded equally by the State and Beijing Municipality. The plan was agreed and approved by the Planning Committee of the State eventually. So the third phase of China Science and Technology Museum was changed its name into the construction of new China Science and Technology Museum.

On 1st April, 2005, the National Development and Reform Commission gave the official approval for the advice about the new construction of China Science and Technology Museum given by National Development and Reform Commission to China Association for Science and Technology and Beijing Municipal Development and Reform Commission. So far, the new construction of China Science and Technology Museum given by National Development was settled in China. The new building was 102 thousand m2 with an investment of 1.09 billion RMB Yuan in all and the construction period was two years. The new building was located in the northeast side of the National Olympic Park, Area B01, covering 4.83 hectares. Its construction goal was to build a modern and comprehensive science and technology museum at the national level with prominent theme and perfect function.

On 9th May, 2006, the new China Science and Technology Museum held the foundation laying ceremony. Member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, Vice Chairman of the National People's Congress Wang Zhaoguo, Member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, Beijing Communist Party Secretary Liu Qi, Vice Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress Han Qide, State Council member Chen Zhili, President of China Association for Science and Technology Zhou Guangzhao, Deputy Secretary of Beijing Municipal Committee, Mayor of Beijing Wang Qishan, Vice Chairman of China Association for Science and Technology, Party Secretary and First Secretary of the Secretariat Deng Nan attended the foundation laying ceremony.

On 16th September, 2009, the new China Science and Technology Museum was finished and opened to the public officially.

The new Museum is another milestone of the development of the China Science and Technology Museum, and it was also a great event for the career of the science popularization in China. It played a positive role on enhancing the ability to popularize science in China, improving the civil scientific literacy, implementing the country through science and education and the strategy of reinvigorating China through human resource development, propagating scientific outlook on development and building a socialist harmonious society. Simultaneously, there was a demonstration and radiation effect on the construction of the national science museums by building and opening the new China Science and Technology Museum.