Chinese students visit Thermopolis

Twenty-five students from China had the experience of a lifetime as they got the opportunity to dig for dinosaurs at the Wyoming Dinosaur Center last week.

The youngsters are the first of two waves of children from Shanghai, China coming to the center this summer for an immersive educational program based on paleontology and geology.

The hope is the students will take this experience and go on to become paleontologists or geologists in their home country, a line of work that is dying in China as more and more students work toward becoming lawyers, bankers and businessmen.

Parents signed their children up for the program that has been in the works for two years. It is not affiliated with any particular school.

One of the organizers, Tyler Smith, said their first stop after reaching American shores was a trip to a lake where they learned about landscapes, minerals and earth history.

Thermopolis was their next stop and they've done more than just look for bones.

Smith said part of the experience is sightseeing and using all the local resources such as restaurants, to not only give the kids a well-rounded trip, but give back to the communities they're visiting as well.

The students are between nine and 13 years old, and while there are other programs like this overseas, this is the first one to come to the U.S. and the first one to revolve around paleontology and geology.

Needless to say, coming from a city of 40 million people to the wilds of Wyoming is quite an experience for them.

They attended the WJRA rodeo on Saturday night and a young roper showed them how to use a lasso, letting each one take a turn. While they said they did like pizza, one young man said he preferred the ice cream they had at Dairy Land after the rodeo.

The next group will be arriving in Thermopolis in two weeks for their chance to dig the dinos.