In 1996, Professor Chen Pei Ji from China shared with his international colleagues what looked like a fossil of a small, feathered dinosaur that had been unearthed in Liaoning Province. Up to that time, it was not believed that dinosaurs could have had feathers. Since that meeting, Mark Norell, Curator of Paleontology in the American Museum of Natural History, where the international panel of experts had met, has travelled frequently to China to research fossil finds. This personal and very readable account of paleontology in China is as much about the science as it is about an ancient culture in modern times seen through the eyes of a foreigner. Snapshots of modern China vie for attention with striking photographs of fossilised "dragons" and other creatures. With reading list and index.