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The Dinosaur Museum together with the American National Dinosaur Park and the Canadian Dinosaur Dinosaur Museum in ZigongPark 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.

Qufu is famous around the world for the birth place of the sage Confucius. There are lots of historical monument and cultural relics, such as the temple of Confucius, the Mansion of Confucius and the Cemetery of Confucius, which has been included in the World Cultural Heritage.

Confucius is a famous thinker, educator and the founder of Confucianism. It is said that he has about 3000 disciples and 72 are outstanding among all. He wrote many books and made great contribution to spread knowledge. The words and deeds of him were compiled by his disciples into a book 'Lunyu', which become the classic of Confucianism.

Confucius created great influences to the character and temperament of Chinese nation during the 5000 history. The World Cultural Heritage Committee praised Confucius as the greatest thinker, educator and politician between the 6th and the 5th Century B.C.. The 'World Celebrities Dictionary' of American put Confucius the No.1 of the list of ten great thinkers of the World. The 'People Almanac Handbook' also put Confucius No.1 in the list of the ten thinkers and culture celebrities of the world.

Confucius Temple is where set sacrifice to Confucius, and is the biggest sacred place in China. With an area of 21.8 hectares, the temple has nine courtyards. There are altogether 466 halls, 54 gate archways, more than 1700 age-old tree and more than 1200 tablets in the temple. Confucius Temple, the former Imperial Palace in Beijing, and those in the Summer Resort of Chengde are called the three great ancient architecture complexes in China.Dacheng Hall in the Confucius Temple, the hall of Supreme harmony in the former Imperial Palace, and Tiankuangdian in Daimiao Temple in Mt. Tai are the three important halls in China. Since 2000 years ago, tourists paid visit and lingered here.

Confucius Mansion, also called Yanshenggong's Mansion, located near the Temple, is the dwelling place of the descendents of Confucius. With 463 rooms and the back garden, it has nine courtyards along three routes and covers an area of 16 hectares. There are a large a mount of precious cultural relics about 30,000 pieces in all, which are mainly largess from the court. Besides there are abundant materials also, which is rare resource of making research of the China feudal society.

Located in the north of Qufu and covers an area of more than 200 hectares, the Cemetery of Confucius is the special cemetery for Confucius and his descendents, which has the longest history and largest scale in the world. It is also the oldest and largest man-made garden in the world. There are over 100,000 ancient trees, and several hundreds of other plants in the Cemetery.The trees set off one another, with many of steles and groups of stone images, Stele forest is worthy of the name.

In 1982, Qufu is enrolled in the 'first group of Historical and Cultural Celebrity Cities in China, 24 in all'. In 1994, the 'Three Kongs' is enrolled in the World Culture Heritage by UN. Because of the contribution of Qufu to the culture of Orient, it is called one of the three divine cities in the world: 'Mekka in Orient'. Every year from 26th September to 10th October, International Confucius Cultural Festival is held here and becomes a classic tourism brand.

The traveler finds the Mogao Caves, a shrine of Buddhist art treasures, 25 km (15.5miles) from downtown Dunhuang on the eastern slope of Mingsha Shan (Mount Echoing Sand). A network of plank reinforced roads plying north to south 1600 meters (5, 249 feet) long lead to the cave openings, which are stacked five stories high some reaching up to 50 meters (164 feet). By the way, Mogao means high up in the desert.

Buddhist art has its origins in India. Mogao sculptors improvised where the rock surface did not work well under their chisels. They placed clay statues in front of the cave walls, carved relief murals as backdrops, and painted the sidewalls and ceilings with art decors. The largest statue is 34.5 meters (113 feet) high and the smallest a mere 2 centimeters (0.79inches) high.

The traveler will note traces of Indian Buddhist art in the earlier works. More recent works depict all walks of life and activities in a local setting. You will relive the daily routines and special events as captured by the artists while you are exploring the 750 caves. There are also ups and downs in the artistic quality over the centuries, depending on the fortunes of Buddhism with available art patronage. Artists in each dynasty

painted with their distinctive palette. The visitor can tell the works in the Tang Dynasty from those in the Song Dynasty. "Murals of Northern Wei Dynasty in Cave No. 254""Vivid Statue of early Tang Dynasty" People believe it possible to fill 25 kilometers (15.5miles) of gallery space with the works of art from Mogao. There are 50,000 manuscripts written in many languages apart from artifacts. The Mogao Caves are a depository of historical and cultural exchanges over more than a thousand years between China and other nations.

         Dazu Sleeping Buddha                                          Dazu Rock Carvings