Lufeng Dinosaur Museum

In 1938, the geologists Bian Meinian and Yang Zhongjian walked the red hills of Lufeng, Yunnan, and uncovered a vast graveyard of the Jurassic period. Their hands pulled the first bones of Lufengosaurus huenei from the earth, establishing a scientific legacy that eventually found a permanent home at No. 95 Jinshan South Road. Completed in 1991, the Lufeng Dinosaur Museum stands as a multi-story brick-concrete structure spanning 1,666 square meters of construction area. Visitors entering the space encounter the brushstrokes of sociologist Fei Xiaotong, who hand-wrote the museum's name for its opening on October 26, 1991.

Inside, the air is quiet, holding the scent of old stone and preserved clay. The main facility contains five permanent exhibition halls across 976 square meters of interior space. In the Dinosaur Hall, mounted skeletons ranging from 2.4 to 9 meters in length stand in suspended motion. Nearby, the fossilized teeth and skulls of the Miocene hominid Lufengpithecus lufengensis offer a silent gaze from the deep past.

The museum connects deep geological time with human history. The Bronze Buddhist Statues Hall houses heavy, cold-cast Yuan and Ming Dynasty religious figures. In the Blue and White Porcelain Hall, the smooth, cool surfaces of vessels from the historic Luochuan and Renxing Bailongjing kilns show the touch of ancient potters. The History and Cultural Relics Hall displays Neolithic stone rings, Eastern Han bronze washing basins, and worn memorabilia left by the Chinese Red Army during the Long March. Outside, the Stele Gallery preserves chiseled stone inscriptions.

Beyond this central hub, the museum administers two satellite halls at Dawasaurus Mountain. Here, across 945 square meters, 251 fossil specimens remain embedded exactly as they died, frozen in their original geological burial state. Today, as a National Class-III Museum partnering with Yunnan University, the institution protects 1,624 pieces of history, including 110 precious national treasures. It remains a place where the deep earth speaks directly to the present.