Peking Man Site
Over 500.000 years ago, the caves in this limestone area were inhabited by early hominids. They stayed for the next 300.000 years. When this hominid race disappeared, the caves became naturally filled in, and the tools, food scraps and bones in them remained covered by deposits until modern times.
The site was discovered in 1921 by the Swede John Gunnar Andersson. Intensive excavation began in 1927. The site yielded nearly 200 pieces of Peking Man fossil (representing around 40 individuals), over 10.000 stone artifacts, several layers of ash as evidence of fire use, and more than 100 specimen of fossil animal.
In the Upper Cave, discovered in 1930, the remains of 20.000 to 10.000 years old
homo sapiens have been found. This site consists of four parts: the entrance, the upper chamber as living floor, the lower chamber as graveyard and the lower recess which was a natural trap for large mammals.
Visit April 2004
Maps were unfolded at my hotel when I asked about how to go to Zhoukoudian. It didn't became very clear if there is a bus going there, so I opted to hire a taxi for a few hours. The driver didn't know how to get there either, but with a map and some directions asked under way we drove to Zhoukoudian. After leaving the expressway, we even encountered a large sign "Peking Man World Heritage Site, Zhoukoudian", accompanied by a picture of Peking Man himself and the Unesco logo. At the end of the road through town, we stumbled upon a parking lot and a ticket office (marked Beijing ren). I was pleased to have made it here, as it looked like not many people ever got here.
Behind the entrance, following steep steps through the woods, the first place to see is the Peking Man cave (the one that was discovered in 1921). Signs in English detail the findings here. I had the place all to myself, it was so quiet that I expected some prehistoric animal to creep from under the stones. A great place to contemplate man's life during the past 500.000 years though.
I walked around the other caves and the interesting museum. The phrase 'Few go to visit Peking Man site anymore' (the title of a Seattle newspaper article you can find in the links section above) didn't prove true today however: about half an hour after I had arrived, some twelve buses filled up the parking lot and released hundreds of screaming schoolchildren. All wearing their school's training suits, they ran around the place filling in questionnaires and picknicking at every possible spot (with the chicken legs their mothers packed them, or a bag from McDonalds).
More photos can be found in the Picture Gallery
Reviews
Paul Tanner (UK):
 We all grow up with a vague memory of a “Peking Man” entry in our home or school encyclopaedias. Despite that, in 4 previous visits to Beijing, we had not, given all the other attractions in and around that city, been bothered to make the c 50kms journey out to the site of its finding. In autumn 2005 we put that right – I can’t say we were expecting a lot and to be truthful we didn’t get it either and could not recommend giving it a higher priority than we have done!
The site is situated where the plains give way to limestone hills and a number of caves there have been excavated since 1921. It came as a surprise to discover that most of them had in fact been gradually filled in by natural processes (and presumably also the results of use by humans?) over the millennia and the main “cave” (photo) provides a nice example of the various strata which have been excavated to unearth the remains of “human” habitation going back around 500,000 years (some of the discoveries are as recent as 18000 years old showing a long period of human use). The museum at the site contains some casts of the remains and another surprise was to discover that most of the most important early discoveries were lost in the chaos following WWII – possibly in transit to the USA and that casts are all we now have. Some enormous “Bronzes” of the skull adorn the site to make up for the lack of more tangible authentic remains!
If you do decide to visit the place you will need around 4 hours to/from Beijing including an hour to walk the trail to various caves and visit the museum. We took a taxi to/from our hotel for the afternoon but it is possible to do it by bus. These start at the Tianquiao Bus Station west of Tiantan and run along Guang’an Lu just south of Beijing West Railway station. Bus No 917 seemed to run every few minutes but only goes as far as the town of Fangshan a few kms short of Zhoukoudan from where another bus or taxi should be easy. It is likely however that the less frequent bus No 971 goes all the way. Good luck! |
| Date posted: October 2005 |
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