Zigong Dinosaur Museum

Zigong Dinosaur Museum Facts

The Zigong Dinosaur Museum is located near the city of Zigong, Sichuan, China, in the township of Dashanpu. The museum sits on top of a large concentration of a diverse dinosaur assemblage from the Shaximiao Formation. The museum claims the largest number of dinosaur fossils in the world and covers 25,000 square meters with a display area of 3,600 square meters. It attracts up to seven million visitors a year.

Chinese Name: 自贡恐龙博物馆

Type: Culture & Museums; Dinosaur Museum

Address: Zigong City, Sichuan Province

Best Seasons: Spring and autumn, all year round.

Recommended Visiting Hours: about 2 hours

Opening Hours: 08:30-17:30 (Stop selling ticket at 17:00)

Ticket:  CNY 40 for adults;
Free of charge for children below 1.2 meters (3.9 feet).

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Why is Zigong Dinosaur Museum So Special?

1. The Zigong Dinosaur Museum was established in 1987, becoming the first museum based almost entirely on dinosaurs in Asia. Mounted specimens include Omeisaurus, Gigantspinosaurus, Yangchuanosaurus, Huayangosaurus and Xiaosaurus.
2. A famous saying goes, “Sichuan‘s dinosaurs are numerous and one finds a veritable nest of them at Zigong.” 
3. The Zigong Dinosaur Museum is one of the world’s three largest dinosaur museums and the first specialized dinosaur museum in China. It attracts up to seven million visitors a year.

Brief Introduction of Zigong Dinosaur Museum

Established in the noted site of dinosaur fossils, Da Shanpu, Dinosaur Museum in Zigong is about 11 kilometers (about 7 miles) from the center of Zigong City. It covers 25,000 square meters (about 17 acres), which makes it the biggest in southeast China. It enjoys the same excellent reputation as the American National and Canadian Dinosaur Parks, presently affording a large-scale preserved dinosaur fossil burial site.

The museum holds affiliated buildings, a green belt and halls which include a fossil burial hall, central hall, conference room, dinosaur ecological environment hall, and so on. Since the opening in 1987, the Dinosaur Museum has enjoyed a top reputation with its unique architectural style, magnificent burial site, life-like exhibits and elegant environment. With two floors and a basement, the huge rock cave-like museum exhibits dinosaur fossils, dinosaur site, plants and animals in the age of dinosaur, and rare species of dinosaurs.

Main Contents and Attractions of Zigong Dinosaur Museum

At present, only around 20% of excavated dinosaurs in the world are from the Jurassic period, and most of these are from the late Jurassic. For years, the lack of fossils from the early and middle Jurassic periods left a lot unexplained about how dinosaurs evolved. However, most of those fossils discovered in Zigong, and especially those at Dashanpu, helped fill in many of the blanks and provided extremely valuable material for the study of dinosaurs during those periods.

The newly built Zigong Dinosaur Museum consists of three floors. The exhibits mostly focus on displaying fossils that have been excavated from the immediate site, and are divided into three parts:

Part 1 — Introduction to Dinosaurs

Part 1 introduces general information about fossils, botanical evolution, geologic periods, the evolution of dinosaurs and other extinct species.

Part 2 — Dinosaur Fossils

Part 2 introduces the group of dinosaurs from the Dashanpu discovery site. The collection ranges fromboth tiny dinosaurs to massive skeletons standing over 10 meters (33 feet) high and 20 meters (66 feet) long.

Part 3 — The Burial Site of Dinosaurs

Part 3 is the actual site of the dinosaurs discovery and an exhibition area of 1,000 sq. m (10,764 sq. ft) is given for visitors to explore the dig site. You can actually go down into an underground room and touch the fossils and see the complexity of the layers and ores. Observers can also look down from  above to see dinosaur bones in their original setting.

Best Seasons to Visit Zigong

How to get to Zigong Salt History Museum

Travel with ChinaDragonTours (top recommended)

If you want to get out of the traffic and hassle of navigation, you can book a private tour package that includes visiting, dining and transfer from us. Our local guide and driver will escort you to Zigong Dinosaur Museum in the fastest and most convenient way and take care of all the details. You just have to focus on the visiting.

Independent Traveler

By Flight
The airport in Zigong has not yet well constructed till today. There are two large international airports near this city for you choice. Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport has opened more than 70 international airlines and Chongqing Jiangbei International Airport has opened 58 airlines to and from Europe, American, Australia, and Asia…

By Train
Zigong Railway Station is located at the Ziliujing District that is the central area of the city. Since many high speed trains to and from Chengdu, Guangzhou, Chongqing, Guiyang, Hangzhou, Kunming, etc. stop here, it is very convenient to reach this city.

By Long-distance Bus
From Chengdu, you can take a long-distance bus to Zigong within 3 hours. You can buy a ticket in Beimen Bus Station for RMB84, Xinnanmen Bus Station for about RMB50 (to Zigong Dinosaur Museum), Chengdu Bus Terminal for about RMB85 or Shuangliu Airport Bus Station for about RMB86.

Getting Around
In Zigong city, taking a regular bus or a taxi to travel is very convenient and cheap. You can also find many long-distance buses to other cities like Luzhou, Yibin, Neijiang, Chengdu, Leshan, Emei, Mianyang, Nanchong, Chongqing, etc.

Useful Travel Tips

1. .Avoid visiting during school holidays and Golden Week in October as there will be large numbers of local tourists.
2. Accommodation
   It is very easy to find a comfortable hotel or hostel to stay in Zigong, especially in the most prosperous Ziliujing District. You can choose the luxury Tanmulin Celebrity City Hotel of five-Star and some four-star hotels with pleasant services and superior equipment, such as the Zigong Huidong Hotel, Ying Xiang JinJiang Tower, Xiongfei Holiday Hotel, Vilu Reef International Hotel, Sophia Hotel, etc. Also, there are a lot of comfortable hotels of nice prices, like the 7 Days Inn Zigong Bus Station Branch near the bus station. But please remember that though the hotels in the downtown area will make your trip more convenient, it may be noisier at night.
3. The two-star Tanmu Lin Hotel with its ancient style and the three-star San Wan Hotel in the center of Zigong City are convenient. Trains connect Zigong City with Chengdu or Chongqing via Neijiang. Souvenir specialties include Zhu Si Tuan Shan (bamboo fans) and Zigong paper-cuts.

Nearby Attractions

• Shenhaijing Salt Well
• China Color Lantern Museum
• Zigong Salt History Museum
• Leshan Giant Buddha

Edited by Bella Ren/任新月