Source: Global Times　 (By Ming Yue)

 

If you see several giant dinosaurs inside Olympic Park, don't panic! As the sign says, "These dinosaurs came just for summer vacation."

Sitting one kilometer north of the Bird's Nest, Dino Dream Park, a science-oriented summer theme park, opened to the public July 1. Comprising three major exhibition halls—Return to Jurassic, Ice Age Relics and Scientific Dream—it sets out to give kids a fun, hopefully educational summer time complete with rarely seen dinosaur fossils and giant robot dinosaurs.

I had some trepidation when I approached the park. The entrance is guarded by an enormous robot dinosaur, but the only thing going for it was its hugeness. Otherwise, it wasn't particularly impressive or lifelike.

My jaded skepticism maintained when I entered the fossil exhibition hall. I'd never seen a complete dinosaur skeleton before, and my first thought was, "That has to be a model." The dark shade of the bones and the seeming "newness" made my companion and I both think it was a fake wooden model standing in the doorway.

Then, however, I started to believe what I saw. I looked over the dinosaur bones, including the herbivorous Mazongshanensis and carnivorous Monolophosaurus, and felt a sense of familiarity enter my heart when I learned some of them were found in Xinjiang, Gansu or Sichuan. The fossils' active poses and simulated surroundings provided a stronger sense of reality.

The Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP) is one of the two co-organizers behind the park, and they loaned the Scientific Dream Hall a series of prehistoric dinosaur fossils from their collection of more than 2.2 million.

Besides the Scientific Dream, the Return to Jurassic Hall is one of the few highlights. Walking into the sample room, we were surrounded by models of various kinds of dinosaurs. The robots can move, and they're triggered by induction blocks in the floor when visitors step closer.

The Ice Age Relics display holds the fossils of other prehistoric creatures and simulated scenes of what their lives might have been like. The park also has a 3-D cinema featuring two dinosaur films that might be a win-win for both kids and parents, but the movie tickets are not included in the price of admission to the park. In addition to the dinosaur attractions, there are also normal playground projects for children not considering a career in paleontology.

Date: Until August 31, 9 am-8 pm

Venue: Beijing Olympic Park

Price: 90 yuan, 60 yuan (for children under 1 meter tall and 65-year-old and above people)