THE DINOSAURS SEEM to be coming alive. Some are arching their long necks as if to sniff the air, others are ready to roar as their jaws tilt skyward.
For the crowds gathering in Taikoo Shing, it's like being transported back to another age. But dinosaur expert Gao Yuhui doesn't entertain such fantasies. For the past week, he's been putting these monsters back together, hauling their heads high, and fitting wires into their giant mouths.
A specialist in carnivorous dinosaurs, Gao has been living with these prehistoric relics for over two decades. Now he's at work in a shopping mall, one of two mainland dinosaur experts supervising the assembly of eight fossils for an unprecedented exhibition.
While people look on enraptured, Gao and his workmates from the Sichuan Zigong Dinosaur Museum, carefully put together a femur (thigh bone), as thick as a small tree. Next to him, a semi-assembled dinosaur stands three times his height, its still, headless neck stretching upwards.
Organised by Swire Properties, the Chinese Dinosaur Fossils Exhibition in Cityplaza opens today and runs until the end of July. Eight fossils - five from the Beijing Natural History Museum and three from Sichuan Zigong Dinosaur Museum - will be on display on the shopping centre's first and second floors.
Some onlookers have stood and watched the reconstruction process for hours. It's a rare opportunity for them - usually the work is performed behind closed doors in museums. But the team has relished the chance to perform their work in the open, and often stop to answer questions. Swire Properties first thought of the idea for the show early last year.
