Visiting
the site of Peking Man
I: Museum and Locality 1
When we arrived in Beijing and started to plan in detail how we would spend
our free time, Kelly's Lonely Planet guide suggested something we had never
thought of—visiting the site of Peking
Man, the prehistoric subhuman that had inhabited caves outside Beijing from
500,000 years ago to about 250,000 years ago, i.e., in paleolithic times. Known
officially as Homo erectus Pekinensis, Peking Man left abundant evidence
near the village of Zhoukoudian, evidence that was not to be discovered until
1921. Zhoukoudian seemed to be easily accessible from Beijing because it lay
about an hour's drive away. While I had known of Peking Man for many years, I
never expected to able to actually visit the site. To use Kelly's words, 'This
is a really big deal."
So we went one Saturday, the same four of us (Guoshun,
Jinghua, Kelly, and me) who had gone to the Great Wall, but in a different rented cab, which thankfully performed
perfectly the whole day. Perhaps I took a few more pictures at the site than I
needed to, but it had already become a very special place for me. We were all
affected by what we saw there. If you ever get the chance to visit this place, take it. You will not
regret it. We seldom can go back in history so far and so personally as to stand
in the very caves where Peking Man lived half a million years ago. Enjoy the pictures.
We drove along the major route out of Beijing to the southwest. For a while, it was flat and agricultural, as shown here.
It is surprising how fast one can leave modern Beijing and get into the country. You know you're not in Beijing any more when have to stop for goats crossing the highway in the middle of town! The goats took it all in stride, though, having apparently done it many times before. It was we who hadn't!
Soon a range of hills appeared to our northwest, parallel to the road. It was somewhere up there that we were heading toward. As we approached Zhoukoudian, store signs and storefronts increasingly referred to Peking Man. That led us to expect a fancy place. After all, it was big-deal Peking Man! Instead, we entered a near-deserted parking lot, literally on the other side of the tracks. On one side was the sign shown above. It gave an overview of Peking Man and the site. We practically had the place to ourselves. Those who weren't here were missing a treat indeed!
We paid our money and entered. Ahead of us lay this little walk up to the museum. Paths to the left led to the various "localities" of excavation.
Here is a view of the museum. That's Kelly sitting on the bench.
In front of the museum was this rock, with a fossilized bone of some sort of large mammal.
Inside were displays of bones and other traces of Peking Man and the mammals that lived contemporaneously. This painting attempts to depict Peking Man hunting and gathering.
Upon leaving the museum, we planned how we would walk around the grounds. As usual, Kelly and her Lonely Planet were up to the task. Here she is, reading seriously while Jinghua and Guoshun are listening equally intently. Neither of our Chinese friends had been to the site before. If the lack of visitors that day was any indication, neither had the vast majority of the Chinese people.
Each locality had a sign that described its main features. This one describes one of the main caves, whose roof has largely collapsed during the intervening years. As soon as we understood that the hills were made of limestone, all became clear, for limestone is easily dissolved by mildly acidic rainfall. Steep limestone hills can routinely give rise to caves where early man could seek shelter. Inside a cave, the temperature remains close to the annual average outside, which in midlatitude areas such as northern China is about 10C, or 50F. Temperatures like this would cool Peking Man during the hot summer and warm him during the cold winter. All in all, a cave is not such a bad place to live.
Here is a view of an upper cave in Locality 1. Jinghua is in the foreground. Kelly is just in front of her, changing film.
This picture is taken from closer to the opening of the cave shown above. Note the smaller cave in the opposite hillside.
Here is the lower level of Locality 1. Note the multiple caves in the hillside, marked in red.
Here is another view of the lower part of Locality 1. Although hard to see, a series of numbers up the side of the hill denotes the periods when the site was occupied by Peking Man.
Another view of the upper part of Locality 1, with a prominent cave in the upper background.