The museum was initially established by the Jockey Club's Earth Resources Centre at The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) and funded by the Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust, and is situated on the 8th floor of the Yasumoto International Academic Park building at CUHK.

[1] In 1987, when she accompanied an expedition team from the State Oceanic Administration of the People's Republic of China to the South Pole, she conceived the idea of establishing a polar museum in Hong Kong.

The museum covered an area of approximately 800 m2 (8,600 sq ft)[3] and was built using green building techniques, including natural lighting, sun shading, heat insulation devices, and energy-saving facilities.

[4] Sung hoped that the museum could provide the public with information on climate change and promote sustainable development in Hong Kong.

[6] The campus itself is surrounded by mountains and faces the sea, boasting rich biodiversity, making it suitable for hosting ecological activities based on the museum.

[7] The museum houses over 100 exhibits related to climate change or global warming, including specimens of animals and plants, replicas, tools, and various types of images.

[11] The exhibitions include over 40,000 photos and videos taken by Rebecca Lee,[12] some of which involved life-threatening risks and incurred high costs to capture scenes from the polar regions.

[6] Additionally, the museum incorporates over 50 multimedia installations to help visitors understand climate change issues and research findings from around the world.

It displays a model of the Xue Long to represent the origin of the exhibits and its symbolic significance to China's polar scientific research.

[7] The screen primarily showcases segments of climate and ecological changes discovered by the Xue Long during its expedition to the Arctic Ocean in 2008,[7] including record-high temperatures in the Arctic Ocean leading to rare sightings of polar bears feeding near the ship,[14] aiming to help visitors understand environmental issues related to climate change.

[7] Numerous exhibits include fossils and specimens of animals and plants, such as emperor penguin eggs from Antarctica, seals from the Arctic, and Tibetan ammonites from Mount Everest,[15] as well as tools and instruments used in polar expeditions.

[6][7] Its purpose is to allow visitors to simulate monitoring personnel,[7] observe various geographical information and satellite images of meteorological, oceanographic, and geological changes in Hong Kong, southern China, and the South China Sea, showcasing the actual impact of climate change on Hong Kong and neighboring areas.

[27] Starting from January 2018, the museum has packaged its collection into multimedia interactive modules, loaning them for free to schools, community centers, or non-profit organizations in batches according to different themes, providing the public with easy-to-understand information about climate change.

[34][35] Major donor Rebecca Lee stated that the museum can encourage the public to take responsibility for protecting the Earth's environment.

[7] NPC Standing Committee member Rita Fan believes that cooperation between the Jockey Club and CUHK can disseminate environmental knowledge and research results to the public in various forms and help society achieve sustainable development in accordance with government policies.

[8] However, environmentalist Pang Yiming believes that the museum overly emphasizes the achievements of the People's Republic of China government and Xue Long.