Experience and its dinosaurs!

Tracking China’s Dinosaurs

June 7 (Saturday) – 18 (Wednesday), 2008 (12 days) SGDS

Type of Trip: Geotour (Paleontology) Location: North central and northeastern China (, Beipiao, , Xian, and cities) Science Leaders: Andrew R. C. Milner and Dr. Hai-Lu You Minimum Number: 5 Maximum number: 17

Trip Overview: The Sinofossa Institute and St. George Dinosaur Discovery Site are proud to offer a unique opportunity to experience the cultural, historical, and geological wonders of China while following professional paleontologists Andrew R. C. Milner (City Paleontologist, St. George, Utah) and Dr. Hai-Lu You (Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences) to explore dinosaur footprint-bearing sites at the feathered dinosaur-yielding Province and China’s first track-based national geopark in Gansu Province. The geotour will visit several well-known dinosaur holding museums, including the Beijing Natural History Museum, Chinese Paleozoological Museum, Liaoning Paleontological Museum, and the Dalian Natural History Museum. Last but not least, we will go on tours of the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, and the Terra Cotta Warriors and Horses.

Who Should Attend? Professional or amateur paleontologists, or those studying to be.

Tour Fee, Deposit & Payment: US$ 2,700.00/person (Double occupancy) US$ 3,200.00/person (Single occupancy) Deposit Deadline: US$200.00, April 7, 2008 Full Payment Deadline: May 7, 2008

Included in Tour Package: 9 Deluxe accommodations in Beijing and Dalian, and comfortable clean accommodations in Beipiao and Lanzhou. 9 All meals with beverages. 9 All transportation within China, including transfers between airports and hotels. 9 All sightseeing ticketing throughout the trip. 9 All tools for fossil digging, including hammers, gloves, chisels for individual use, equipments (spades, generator and jet-hammer if needed) and supplies (plasters, glues, burlaps, etc.) if necessary. 9 English-speaking, professional leadership.

1 9 Services of an English-speaking national travel guide for sightseeing and assistants from local fossil museums. 9 Local permits for exploring and digging of fossils (dinosaurs). 9 Full pre-trip information and assistance.

Not Included in Tour Price: ¾ International airfare. ¾ Passport and visa fees. ¾ Laundry. ¾ Gratuities. ¾ Travel insurance.

Your Science Trip Leaders: Andrew R. C. Milner St. George City Paleontologist and SGDS Museum Curator Andrew works with all scientific aspects of the St. George Dinosaur Discovery Site at Johnson Farm dealing with paleontology and geology. Other research interests in southern Utah include the paleontology of the Triassic Moenkopi and Chinle formations, the Early Jurassic Moenave, Kayenta, and Navajo formations, and the Upper Cretaceous Iron Springs Formation. Andrew also works on Late Pleistocene Champlain Sea fossils from eastern North America. He lectures, provides higher educational services such as field trips, serves as an advisor for the Southwest Chapter of Utah Friends of Paleontology and has been a member of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology since 1988. He helped establish the nation's first BLM Paleontological Site Stewardship Program in Washington County, Utah, and he continues to work with the BLM and other federal and state organizations in recording and monitoring paleontological localities in the region.

Dr. Hai-Lu You Institute of Geology, Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences Hai-Lu’s extensive knowledge on vertebrate paleontology, especially dinosaurs was gained through six years of Ph.D. study at University of Pennsylvania, as well as more than fifteen years of field and laboratory works on vertebrate fossils. As a lead scientist, Hai-Lu’s recent research is focusing on two projects: in search of the new evolutionary “missing links” from the Early Cretaceous of China, and the evolution of basal horned dinosaurs, in collaborating with his colleagues from Carnegie Museum of Natural History, University of Pennsylvania, Canadian Museum of Nature, and various Chinese institutions. Hai-Lu has named nine new dinosaur genera since 2003.

2 Itinerary:

Day 1 Beijing: Arrival and Welcome. Feel free to arrive at any time of the day. We will meet you at the Beijing Capital International Airport, and transfer you to the hotel. We will celebrate your arrival with a welcome reception in the evening.

Day 2 Beijing: Beijing Natural History Museum and Chinese Paleozoological Museum. Today, we will visit the Beijing Natural History Museum in the morning, and the unparalleled fossil collections at the Chinese Paleozoological Museum of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP) in the afternoon. IVPP is one of the leading and largest institutions in the world focusing on study of various groups of vertebrate fossils.

Day 3 Beijing > Beipiao. On the third day of our geotour, we will drive to Beipiao City in Liaoning Province, our base for the following 2 days’ expeditions. Around noon on the way, we will visit Shanhaiguan Pass, the east end of the Great Wall, and have lunch there.

Days 4-5 Beipiao: Tracking Feathered Dinosaurs. Western Liaoning Province has recently produced some of the most fantastic paleontological discoveries ever made, including feathered dinosaurs that lived in and around in a vast, mountain-bound lake 125-120 million years ago. We will spend two days here. In the morning of the first day, we will visit the Liaoning Paleontological Museum, where numerous fossils are preserved in situ, and we will study the rocks there. Later that afternoon, we will visit a dinosaur footprint site, and further explore the rocks nearby.

We will use the second day to explore several of the celebrated feathered dinosaur quarries near Beipiao City, considered by many to be the most scientifically important fossil localities in the world. These sites have produced dozens of new species of dinosaurs, primitive birds, and early mammals, as well as countless animals and plants that lived with them; however, our focus will be on searching for their footprints. Our scientists will teach you how to find fossils, especially dinosaur footprints (if you have not done this before). After some challenging work, you could be rewarded with exciting discoveries: maybe new footprints, plants, insects, fishes, possibly birds, and if you're exceptionally lucky, maybe even a feathered dinosaur*.

Day 6 Beipiao > Dalian: Dalian Natural History Museum. Today, we will drive about 400 km to Dalian City in the morning, and visit the Dalian Natural History Museum in the afternoon. Highlights of the dinosaurs include a nest of psittacosaurs with one adult and more than thirty babies, and the first sauropod dinosaur to be discovered that lived with feathered dinosaurs.

3 Day 7 Dalian > Xian > Lanzhou: Terra Cotta Warriors and Horses. We will fly to Xian in the morning, visit the Terra Cotta Warriors and Horses in the afternoon, and catch the evening flight to Lanzhou City, our base for the next 3 days' expedition.

Days 8-10 Lanzhou: discovering and excavating dinosaur footprints. We will visit the Liujiaxia National Dinosaur Geopark on the first day. Here, a diverse and well-preserved assemblage of dinosaur (theropod, sauropod and ornithopod), pterosaur, and bird tracks from the Lower Cretaceous in the Yellow River valley represents the first significant fossil footprint discovery in Gansu Province, China. We will explore and excavate in the area over the following two days.

Day 11 Beijing: the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, and shopping. We will fly back to Beijing in the morning, and visit the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square in the afternoon. We will also leaving sometime for you to shop. We will enjoy Peking Duck for dinner.

Day 12 Beijing: Fond Farewells. We will take you to the airport, guide you to your terminal, and share a final lunch together if you depart in the afternoon.

* According to Chinese laws, all fossils belong to the country. All specimens we collect will be deposited in Chinese institutions.

Pre-trip 2-day sightseeing in Beijing:

Arrive in Beijing on June 5, 2008.

US$ 400.00/person (Double occupancy) US$ 500.00/person (Single occupancy)

Day 1 Beijing: The Lama Temple, Hutong Tour, and the Beijing Zoo. In the morning, we will visit the Lama Temple, and enjoy the Hutong tour. After lunch, we will see pandas at the Beijing Zoo.

Day 2 Beijing: The Great Wall and Ming Tombs. We will drive north to see the Great Wall and Ming Tombs for the whole day. In the evening, we will join other participants for dinner.

Questions? Please contact: Andrew R. C. Milner Hai-Lu You St. George City Paleontologist Sinofossa Institute Tel: 1-435-574-3466 ext. #2 Cell (China): 86-13691587251 Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Web: http://www.dinotrax.com Web: http://www.sinofossa.org

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