I felt my inner-child was waking up when I was reading about Zigong; that there’s Asia’s very first dinosaur museum. Jurassic park the movie, the entire dinosaur related documentaries and books I had when I was a kid, the names I memorized, all coming at once.
So I visited, the first dinosaur museum in Asia, Zigong Dinosaur Museum.
Zigong Dinosaur Museum was more impressive than I expected. In the 1980s, huge amount of fossils were excavated in Dashanpu Formation, 7 kilometers north-east from Zigong city center. Because of the unique and intact bone remains, Zigong has been attractive places to visit to paleontologist and dinosaur enthusiasts.
It is the first specialized dinosaur museum open in Asia. Mounted specimens include Omeisaurus, Gigantspinosaurus, Yangchuanosaurus hepingensis,Huayangosaurus and Xiaosaurus. The interesting thing about this museum is that it was built on the top of the large concentration of a dinosaur assemblage. From that, they have the largest burial site for watching on-spot protected dinosaur fossils in the world. More than 10 thousand specimens belonging to over 200 dinosaurs and other vertebrates have been unearthed, and 21 genera and 26 species, including 12 new genera and 24 new species, have been identified from this site.
Their collections are unique including dinosaur eggs, skin impressions, bony tail clubs and footprints. The skin impressions were unbelievable. I couldn’t believe I actually was looking at the real dinosaur skin. They really got some great stuff for dinosaur enthusiasts. But one odd thing was, that all the bones looked too perfect. There was no single bone missing on the bone structure. Maybe they filled something in, or it was actually the complete set; I couldn’t tell what was right.
If you go: Tourist Bus #3 goes Zigong Dinosaur Museum. But it doesn’t drop you off at the front gate. Before you get on the bus, ask the driver to tell you when you have to get off. They’ll know where you are going; only tourists are going to the museum. (Bus 1 CNY)
