The Insect Museum of West China, the country's first modern insect museum, was opened to the public free of charge on Wednesday.

Located in Dujiangyan city, in Southwest China's Sichuan Province, the museum has a collection of about 400,000 million insect samples, totaling the largest in Asia.

The museum has over 20,000 insect samples on display, including about 1,700 species of Chinese butterflies and approximately 60,000 species of other insects collected from 40 countries around the world, of which over 40 are rare and unique.

Equipped with the most advanced multi-media facilities, the museum truly brings visitors into the world of insects with words, pictures, audio-recordings and videos.

"According to international academic circles, the Insect Museum of West China is one of the largest resources for Chinese butterflies in the world, comprising over 95 percent of the butterfly species that have been discovered in China," said Zhao Li, the curator of the museum.