National Parks of ChinaOverview
| Designation | UNESCO World Heritage (cultural, 1987) |
| Province | Beijing |
| Location | Dragon Bone Hill, Zhoukoudian, Fangshan District, Beijing |
| Latitude, longitude | 39.6, 116.0 Google Maps |
| Highlights | Site of Peking Man |
| Nearby cities | Beijing, Tianjin, Shijiazhuang, Datong |
| Nearby sites | Stone Flower Cave, Yesanpo, Badaling & Thirteen Tombs of the Ming Dynasty, Mount Wutai, Chengde Mountain Resort and its Outlying Temples, The Temple of Heaven, Beijing |
| Themes | Prehistory, Museums |
About
The Peking Man Site at Zhoukoudian, on Dragon Bone Hill in Fangshan District, Beijing, is where the fossils of Peking Man were excavated. It is a World Heritage Site and a Major Historical and Cultural Site protected at the national level, with a museum.
Peking Man (Homo erectus pekinensis) lived roughly 200,000 to 700,000 years ago. In 1929 Pei Wenzhong unearthed the first complete skullcap in the Ape-Man Cave on Dragon Bone Hill.
In 1941, during the war with Japan, the Peking Man skulls vanished and have never been found; some suspect they are in Japan.
In 1933 fossils of modern humans from more than 10,000 years ago, the Upper Cave Man, were found in the Upper Cave above the Ape-Man Cave.
Travel information
The Zhoukoudian museum opens every day; admission 20 yuan. Telephone 010-69301272, 69301287.
The Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology has dated the “Tianyuan Cave Man” bones from Zhoukoudian to about 42,000–38,500 years ago, the earliest modern-human remains yet dated in eastern Eurasia.
Getting there
Zhoukoudian is in Fangshan District, 48 km south-west of Beijing. Take bus 917 from Tianqiao bus station to Fangshan and change to the Huan-2 minibus to Zhoukoudian (1 yuan; also from Liangxiang), then walk 150 m. Bus 917 has several branches, so check that yours goes to Zhoukoudian.
By car, take the Jingshi expressway via Fangshan.