Forest birds, dinosaurs and The Hump: a Yunnan road trip
The subtropical mountains of southwest Yunnan are a treat for birdwatchers, small towns evoke China’s ‘Wild West’, and there are reminders of the area’s prehistory and more recent events
THERE’S AN “only in China” feel to Lufeng Dinosaur Valley, with its kitschy models, dioramas, fun fair, zip line and museum housing hundreds of mounted skeletons, most – if not all – of which were discovered in the region.
Lufeng, in Yunnan province, is one of China’s most renowned dinosaur excavation sites and part of the museum building covers one of the main bone beds. Steps lead down from the exhibition hall to walkways and a section of glass suspended on scaffolding, through which visitors peer down to where dinosaur bones and a fossilised turtle shell have been left in place.
In one gallery I encounter a Lufengosaurus. Dating from the early Jurassic period, almost 200 million years ago, the beast was barely twice the size of a camel yet was among the forerunners of sauropods, the giant plant eaters. This specimen is laid out in a rectangular exhibit almost flush with the floor, unmounted, as if it had been brought here directly from its excavation.
From Lufeng I head for landscapes that had not even formed when dinosaurs roamed the land.