Closer ties: Secretary for Home Affairs Tsang Tak-sing (left) and  Yunnan Province Vice-Governor Liu Ping at the dinosaur fossil donation ceremony.

The Yunnan Province government has donated a set of dinosaur fossils of the Jurassic period to Hong Kong.

Secretary for Home Affairs Tsang Tak-sing received the fossils from the Yunnan Province Vice-Governor Liu Ping in Yunnan today.

Speaking at the donation ceremony Mr Tsang said it is the first time China has given excavated dinosaur fossils to a place outside the Mainland, marking the beginning of closer collaboration and exchanges in culture between Hong Kong and Yunnan.

The dinosaur fossil skeleton of Lufengosaurus is 7.7 metres long and 2.2m tall. It was a plant-eating dinosaur that lived during the Jurassic period, 200 million years ago.

The fossils will arrive in October and be put in the Science Museum for permanent exhibition.