The Site of Peking Man

The Site of Peking Man is located at Zhoukoudian Village, 48 kilometres southwest of Beijing. It is screened by mountains on the northwest with fertile land lying to its southeast. West of the Village stands the Dragon Bone Hill, noted for its large quantities of Chinese medicine dragon bone.

Formed by limestone in the Ordovician period, the Hill rises 70 metres above the river. It is there that the fossils of the Chinese ape-man and their caves were found.

The Chinese ape-man, also known as Peking Man, lived some 690,000 years ago, in mid-period of Pleistocene epoch. The first complete skull of Peking Man was discovered in December, 1929 by Pei Wenzhong, a Chinese paleoanthropologist. Later, large-scale excavations were done on several occasions, amounting to 25,000 cubic metres of earthwork. Fossils of men and vertebrates were found. Of men fossils alone, a total of 152 pieces were uncovered of skulls, fragments of skulls, facial bones, lower jawbones and teeth belonging to over 40 individuals of different ages and sexes.

The findings of 100,000 pieces of stone implements, charred bones and ashes have proved that Peking Man knew how to use fire and was capable of making production tools. The Site of Peking Man provides not only a valuable scientific basis for the study of the origin and development of mankind but also an important base for research in the origin of human species.

In the cave above that of Peking Man were found fossils of the Upper Cave Man. They lived more than 10,000 years ago.

The exhibition is put up by the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. On display are: Peking Man material and casts, reconstructed models of human fossils and the fossils of vertebrates discovered in various parts of China since 1949.

New discoveries since 1949 include five teeth, fragments of an upper arm bone and shin bone, a lower jaw bone and a skull cap. The shin bone is the first to have been discovered. Such an abundance of ape-man fossils found at a single site is rare in the world.

The exhibition is divided into three sections. The exhibits in the first section show the animal world before man. It depicts the early stage of the earth's existence when there was no living matter and the long process of its emergence from inorganic matter and the evolution of life from lower to higher stages. The pictures, fossils, casts and reconstructed models trace the history of the animal world with emphasis on the evolution of vertebrates.

In the second section, casts and models of Peking Man, his stone implements and ashes showing the use of fire by ape-man explain the origin and development of mankind.