The Lufeng Dinosaur Valley park is situated some 60 kms away from Kunming, the capital of Yunnan. It can be accessed via the Kunming-Dali expressway. A museum within the park holds the largest collection of complete dinosaur fossils in the world. This park was one of the itenaries in our recent Yunnan tour.
Dinosaur fossils were first discovered in the area in the 1930s. The new complex has only been recently built by the local government and private investors, to display the fossils and turn the dinosaur valley into a tourist attraction. The entrance to the park is huge and spectacular, as two gigantic columns sculptured with dinosaur details stand at the entrance. The park is with total area of 4 square kilometres is quite huge. Visitors will have to take electric tram ride from the entrance to the museum building.
Besides the excellent exhibits of dinosaur fossils, realistic models of dinosaurs are found all over the landscape in the park, and at times I felt as if was back in the Jurassic age. Surprisingly, there were few visitors to the park on that day and I was wondering the reason for that. Perhaps, the park is still relatively new, and its reputation has yet to be established, unlike the Kunming Stone Forest. And another plus point I have with the park is the excellent state of toilet in the park. It was well designed and very clean.
We spent less than 2 hours in the park. I would love to spend a bit more time – would love to explore this dinosaur infested lush landscaped park but we had to hurry back to waiting bus and guide. Nevertheless I enjoyed the visit, and would recommend it to anyone visiting Kunming. In fact I would rate my visit to this park as being more enjoyable than the Kunming stone forest visit.
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