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Peking Man Site at Zhoukoudian  |
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 Peking Man Site in Zhoukoudian was listed on "world cultural heritage" by UNESCO in December 1987.
On the Dragon Bone Hill in Zhoukoudian, about 50 kilometers southwest of Beijing, is the Site of Peking Man where fossils of the Chinese ape-man and their caves were found.
About 450 million years ago, the area around Zhoukoudian used to be an ocean. Later, the water receded as a result of diastrophism, finally forming the Dragon Bone Hill.
The first complete skull of Peking Man was discovered in December, 1929 by a Chinese paleo-anthropologist. (When the War of Resistance against Japan broke out, the skullcap was transferred to the Peking Union Medical College. Later, it disappeared mysteriously.) In the years that followed, large-scale excavations were done. Fossils of men and vertebrates were found including skulls, facial bones, lower jawbones and teeth belong to over 40 individuals of different ages and sexes.
The research on the data proves that the Peking Man lived 690,000 million years ago and they belong to Homo erectus. They made living in caves by hunting, and they could use and make simple stone-made tools. In addition, they had known how to set fire to warm them and heat their foods. The Peking Man in that time belongs to the Paleolithic Period.
Until today, Peking Man holds as ever a realistic and scientific value. The Peking Man Site is representing the most comprehensively and systematically studied site of Homo erectus. The Peking Man Site also provides the more precise scientific data for the study of the evolution, behaviour, and paleoenvironment of Homo erectus than contemporary African and European sites.
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