March 13, The barren hills south of Beipiao, swept by an icy wind from Mongolia, stand in stark contrast to the ancient environment, which stratigrapher Hao Zhaolin of the Beipiao Bureau of Mineral Resources Administration describes as "a shallow, warm lake whose waters teemed with shoals of fish," with flocks of birds overhead.
January 12, A senior stratigrapher at the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Paleontology (NIGP), Jin spent up to 6 months before each trip meeting such bureaucratic requirements as advance approval for every piece of correspondence.
