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Dinosaur
Museum, Zigong, Sichuan
 The
Dinosaur Museum together with the American
National Dinosaur Park and the Canadian
Dinosaur Park are the world's three largest
dinosaur museums. The Chinese site lies
near Da Shanpu County in the east north
suburbs of Zigong City of Sichuan Province.
It is the first modern specialized dinosaur
museum in China to be set up on the "Da
Shanpu dinosaur fossils group site",
which is called the "Dinosaur Cemetery".
At present, it is the largest and the only
dinosaur museum in Asia located at an actual
fossil burial site. It has been named the
"East Dragon". The Zigong Dinosaur
Museum has the world's largest collection
of dinosaur fossils from the mid-Jurassic
period.
Since its completion and opening
in 1987, with its rare fossil specimens,
magnificent fossil burial locale, simple
and elegant building style, and unique garden
view, the Zigong Dinosaur Museum has become
world renowned in the field of museums and
tour gardens. It has been named as "One
of the forty best and most famous Chinese
scenic tour sites" by the Chinese national
tour bureau.
 The
city of Zigong in Sichuan Province is well
known as a center for the production of
salt and also as an important discovery
area of Dinosaur fossils in China. The earth
in this area formed during the Jurassic
period (135 million years to 210 million
years ago) is easily accessible. The dinosaur
fossils were buried in the earth of early
and mid Jurassic. Dinosaur fossils from
this period are not often found anywhere
else in the world so dinosaur fossils from
the Zigong area offer abundant and key source
materials for scientists to study specimens
from this era.
According to geological investigation,
the soil layers from the Jurassic period
located around Zigong were originally formed
from a wide area near a lake. The climate
was tropical and humid; aquatic grass was
plentiful and luxuriant; and trees were
tall. It was an ideal place for dinosaurs
to live. In Da Shanpu, the area was a calm
sand shoal. The dinosaurs that died here
and also those from considerable distance
upriver here were carried by the river and
buried by mud and sand in the shoal. Over
millions of years, a large number of dinosaur
specimens accumulated in the shoal. Then
over a period of 100 to 200 million years
of this accumulation, the layers of sandstone
containing the fossils that we see today
were finally formed.
 The
exterior of the Zigong Dinosaur Museum appears
as a huge rock hole but is spectacular and
beautiful. It was built along the example
of other large-scale specialized locale
museums such as the Xi'an Banpo Village
Remains Museum and the Museum of the Qin
Terra CottaWarriors and Horses. The Zigong
Museum covers an area of 25,000 square meters
with a display area of 3600 square meters
located on three floors. The display is
primarily focused on the dinosaur fossils
excavated from Da Shanpu.
 The
museum offers a show feature which is divided
into the following three parts: The first
part focuses on introducing basic knowledge
concerning dinosaurs, such as the evolution
of current animals and creatures, fossils,
the various geological eras, and the development
and types of dinosaurs.
The second part introduces all
of the various types of dinosaur fossils
found in Da Shanpu. The entire exhibition
is displayed in a high and spacious hall.
Here there are several completely intact
skeletons of dinosaurs from the era.
 The
third part describes the site of the dinosaur
fossils. This allows tourists to see an
actual excavation site.
The display halls include the
first hall, a specimens display hall, a
fossils excavation area hall, a central
hall, a curiosity hall, the display hall
describing the history of construction of
the museum, and an area describing what
the prehistoric world was really like.
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