Construction workers repairing a road through the middle of Heyuan in 2015 stopped their machinery halfway through the job after uncovering 43 fossilised dinosaur eggs buried beneath the road, 19 of them still completely intact.
二零一五年,一队正在河源市中心修路的工人,在施工过程中意外挖出四十三枚恐龙蛋化石,不得不停下机械设备;其中十九枚保存完整。
Even the museum built to house such finds produced its own before it opened; in August 2008, workers constructing the new Heyuan Dinosaur Museum unearthed nine dinosaur eggs at the building site itself.
就连专门收藏这些化石的博物馆,在建成开放之前,施工现场也曾挖出过恐龙蛋;二零零八年八月,工人在河源恐龙博物馆新馆建设工地,发现了九枚恐龙蛋化石。
Four years after the roadworks discovery, a nine-year-old boy playing beside the Dong River stumbled upon another nest, this time containing eleven eggs, exposed in the riverbank soil after flooding had damaged a nearby bridge and washed away the earth around its foundations; museum staff were called in to complete the excavation.
道路施工中的发现四年之后,一名九岁男孩在东江边玩耍时,又发现了另一窝恐龙蛋,这次共有十一枚,是在附近一座桥梁遭洪水冲毁、桥基周边泥土被冲走后暴露出来的;博物馆工作人员随后被请来完成后续发掘工作。
A Museum with More than Twenty Thousand Eggs
一座收藏逾两万枚恐龙蛋的博物馆
The museum won a Guinness World Record in November 2004 for holding 10,008 dinosaur eggs, then the largest such collection anywhere on Earth; its holdings have since grown to more than 20,000.
二零零四年十一月,该馆凭借一万零八枚恐龙蛋的馆藏,获得吉尼斯世界纪录认证,创下当时全球同类收藏之最;此后馆藏数量已增长至逾两万枚。
Researchers have so far identified 12 species across 11 genera and five families among the eggs. Together with local discoveries of dinosaur bones and footprints, the sheer number and diversity of the eggs have helped make Heyuan known officially as China’s Hometown of Dinosaurs.
研究人员迄今已从这些蛋化石中辨识出五科十一属十二种恐龙。连同当地陆续发现的恐龙骨骼与足迹化石,数量庞大、种类丰富的恐龙蛋化石,也让河源赢得了”中华恐龙之乡”的称号。
According to the city’s own 2024 economic communiqué, Heyuan’s GDP reached ¥140.8 billion that year, up 2.2 percent, with per capita output at ¥49,609; the permanent population stood at 2.837 million, down slightly on the year before.
据该市自身发布的二零二四年经济统计公报显示,当年河源市GDP达一千四百零七点七二亿元,同比增长百分之二点二,人均产值为四万九千六百零九元;常住人口为二百八十三点七万人,较上年略有下降。
Getting to Heyuan means a high-speed rail journey of around 1 hour 45 minutes from Guangzhou, or just 48 minutes from Shenzhen, on a line that only reached the city in December 2021, making Heyuan the last prefecture-level city in Guangdong to be connected to the high-speed network.
前往河源,可乘坐高铁,从广州出发车程约一小时四十五分钟,从深圳出发则仅需四十八分钟;这条铁路直至二零二一年十二月才通车,河源也因此成为广东省内最后一个通达高铁的地级市。
Heyuan’s dinosaur-bearing red sandstone extends across more than 100 square kilometres; how many more eggs remain buried within it, the city itself says, is simply unknown.
河源盆地含有恐龙化石的红砂岩层分布面积超过一百平方公里;其中究竟还埋藏着多少枚恐龙蛋,就连当地有关部门也表示,无人知晓。
