China tour guide

Protected Sites:Machangyuan Site

lvjiyong@Gmail.com (John Lv) — Mon, 18 Dec 2006 15:45:00 +0800

Machangyuan Site is located in Minhe County of Qinghai Province.

Machangyuan Site, lying in the upper reaches of the Yellow River, comprises the ruins of the Majiayao Culture of the late Neolithic Age. First discovered in the autumn of 1924, the site dates back to 2200-2000BC, according to archaeological studies.

Two tombs were unearthed during the 1924 excavation, including four pieces of colored pottery. One of the items, decorated with four big ring-shaped patterns, is an earthen jar with a small mouth, wide shoulders and two ears. Two others are double-eared pots adorned with vertical and horizontal lines. The remaining piece a bowl decorated with colored patterns in the shape of lightening bolts inside. The discovered tombs had been severely damaged.

Such wares were usually made of coarse pottery and have simple decorations, such as red and black stripes or red stripes with black edges -- most of them homochromous. Apart from striped patterns, decorations also include spiral or diamond patterns.

Protected Sites:City Site in the State of Loulan

lvjiyong@Gmail.com (John Lv) — Mon, 18 Dec 2006 15:43:00 +0800

The Ancient City of Loulan is located on the west banks of the Lop Nur Lake in Ruoqiang County, Bayinguole in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

The city occupied a very significant position on the Silk Road leading to the West during the Han Dynasty (206BC-AD220) and played an important role in promoting cultural exchanges between the East and the West. However, the city was later swallowed up by the desert. There are no historical documents recording the exact location of the ancient city, which has been buried for thousands of years. Reputed as the Pompeii in the desert, the city became a mystery of Chinese history.

In the spring of 1900, the Swedish explorer Sven Hedin accidentally discovered a huge Buddhist pagoda and the ruins of an ancient city that proved to be the Ancient City of Loulan. In 1979 and 1980, Xinjiang archaeologists carried out many excavations at the site.

The Ancient City of Loulan is located 89"55"-89"22" east longitude and 40"45"-40"55" north latitude. The city is an irregular square shape with the east wall stretching along 333 meters; the south wall, 329 meters; and the west and north walls, 327 meters each. There are gaps in the center of the south and north walls that were probably used as gates.

The tallest construction inside the city is a 10.4-meter-high Buddhist pagoda in the east of the city. The pagoda was built using adobe mixed with timber and has a square-shaped base about 19.5 meters long on each side. Five kilometers northwest of the ancient city is a 12-meter-high beacon tower made of clay and timber.

The most special construction site inside the city is the three-room site located in the middle. These three rooms are the only structures made from adobe. Sitting in the north and facing south, the rooms have wooden houses at their east and west ends. With traces of red paint, some of the timbers are 6.4 meters long. The rooms' location and the architectural style suggest they were the site of the Loulan government office.

The constructions in the residential area southwest of the city have long perished. There is an ancient tunnel, however, stretching from the east to the west through the compound which archeologists believe served as a water source for Loulan residents.

Ruins of Buddhist temples, a beacon fire and tombs were also unearthed around the city, including a large number of cultural relics, such as a 5-zhu coin (24 zhu=1 liang, or 0.05 kilograms) from the Han Dynasty, coins from the Tang Dynasty (618-907), remnants of bamboo slips with Han and Khatoshthi characters, silk and wool fabrics, lacquers, wooden wares, jade ware, bronze ware and fragments of glass ware. Many excavated items, which were not made in the Central Plain areas, provide important materials for the study of the transportation and cultural exchanges between the East and the West, as well as the historical relationship between border areas and China's inland.

Protected Sites: Liulihe Site

lvjiyong@Gmail.com (John Lv) — Mon, 18 Dec 2006 15:43:00 +0800

Liulihe Site is located on the mesa on the banks of the Dashi River, 1.5 kilometers north of Liulihe Town in Fangshan District, Beijing.

As an important site of the early Western Zhou Dynasty (11th century-771 BC), Liulihe was first discovered by Chinese archaeologists in the 1940s. Excavations at the site were carried out in 1973.

The site covers an area of about 500 square meters, with remnants of the north wall topping 800 meters in length and the east and 300 meters along the west walls. The wall, built with solid tampered earth, is about 10 meters wide. Surrounded with an outside moat, the city has a large number of densely distributed foundations inside. A noble burial area stretches across the southeast of the city, covering an area of over 50,000 square meters. To date, over 200 tombs of nobles have been unearthed, including tombs containing bodies that were buried with the dead and pits with vehicles and horses. Also unearthed at the site are various cultural relics, including bonze, jade and bone ware. Most of the bronze ware display carved inscriptions.

The Liulihe Site, as the ruins of the capital of the Yan State in the early Western Zhou Dynasty, provides important material for the study of the early history of the Yan State.

Protected Sites:Fossil Site of Lama Ape Man

lvjiyong@Gmail.com (John Lv) — Mon, 18 Dec 2006 15:42:00 +0800

The Fossil Site of the Lama Ape man is located on Miaoshan Mountain in Shihuiba Village, nine kilometers northeast of Lufeng County in Yunnan Province.

The site covers an area of over 20,000 square meters, with a fossil deposit about five meters thick. Many excavations were carried out at the site between 1975 and 1982 where over 1,000 Lama Ape man and Xiwa Ape man fossils were unearthed. Among the fossils are skulls, jawbones, limb bones and teeth, including a near-complete jawbone with 12 teeth (frontal teeth, canines and premolars). Also unearthed at the site are fossils of over 10 species of animals, such as three-toed horse, rhinoceros and antelope.

The first skull fossil of the Lama Ape man was discovered on April 9, 1980. The Lama Ape man was the transitional form in the evolution from ape to man, and possessed many features of early, primitive man. Dating back over 8 million years, the Lama Ape man was reputed as the ancestor of human beings. The discovery of the Lama Ape-man filled the gap in the evolutionary process between the Kaiyuan Ape man that existed 15 million years ago and the Yuanmou Man of 1.7 million years ago. The discovery provides important insight into the study of the Ape Man's position in the evolutionary cycle and the time and place of human origin.

Protected Sites:Juyan Site

lvjiyong@Gmail.com (John Lv) — Mon, 18 Dec 2006 15:40:00 +0800

Juyan Site spreads across Jinta County of Gansu Province and the Erjina Banner of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

Juyan is the site of the beacon towers and walls of the frontier fortress under Ju Yan and Jian Shui of the Zhangye prefecture during the Han Dynasty (206BC-220AD). The frontier fortress stretches from the northeast to the southwest, with a total length of about 250 kilometers. Built in 102BC, it was abandoned in the late Eastern Han (25-220). The frontier fortress acted as a strategic pathway to the West and a barrier along the Gansu Corridor. It also played an important role in severing the connection between the Huns and the Qiangs, and held a special position in the Han strategy towards the Huns.

During excavations in 1930, over 10,000 bamboo and wooden slips were unearthed from the Han Dynasty. Between 1972 and 1976, another 20,000 slips were unearthed at the Pochengzi Jiaqu Palace Site, the fourth beacon-fire tower ruins of the Jiaqu and Jianshui Jinguan Site. These three sites all have their own special features, providing important clues to forming a comprehensive understanding of the architectural style of beacon-fire towers of the Han Dynasty.

The Pochengzi Jiaqu Palace Site comprises constructions of the Zhang and Wu, both located in the northwest. Covering an area of 23.3 square meters, the small castle contains houses, kitchen ranges and sties. Unearthed cultural relics include bows, arrows, bronze arrowheads and armor, together with iron farm implements, tools and various daily articles.

The fourth beacon tower of Jiaqu is very large; it has a remnant 3.4 meters high. The cone-shaped tower is made of tampered earth on an eight-meter-long base on each side. In the southwest corner of the beacon tower is a kitchen range with a chimney where smoke was released into the sky in emergencies.

The Jianshui Jinguan Site is built on a mountain pass and contains a large number of cultural relics, such as knives, swords and arrowheads; fragments of clothing made of silk, gunny, hide and leather; and torches used for igniting the beacon fire. These findings reflect the military activities of the period.

Han slips found at the site provide a wide range of records that can be applied to many fields, including politics, military affairs, the economy, culture, science and technology, law, philosophy, religion and different ethnic groups. They not only recorded military activities in the Juyan area, but also kept official documents from the mid-Western Han to early Eastern Han periods, providing important materials for the study of Han history and culture.

Protected Sites:Juntai Jun Kiln Site

lvjiyong@Gmail.com (John Lv) — Mon, 18 Dec 2006 15:39:00 +0800

The Juntai Jun Kiln Site is located in Yu County of Henan Province.

Jun Kiln was one of the famous Five Kilns of the Song Dynasty (960-1279). Discovered in 1951, the site underwent excavations in 1962 and 1973 that identified the area as a kiln site which made pottery for the imperial palace. The site flourished during the reign of Emperor Huizong of the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127).

Jun Kiln spreads over a vast area topping 300,000 square meters with densely distributed kilns. It served as a workshop that was operated by the local government. To date, 11 stoves were unearthed, including workshop sites and ash pits. The stoves were arranged in a line with the workshop at the center, ensuring the whole working procedure ran smoothly. The structure of the stove and baking method facilitated heating control and enabled the temperature to reach 1,200 C.

Potteries from the site come in many varieties, such as Jun porcelain, Ru porcelain, Yingqing porcelain, Tianmu porcelain and others with white backgrounds and black patterns. The wares are bright and elegantly designed, with a smooth glaze.

The glaze color was also varied, including sky-blue, pea-green, pale-blue, mauve, dark-blue and off-white hues. Most of the wares have natural cracks on the surface. Flowerpots come in an array of shapes, including the sunflower, lotus flower, Chinese flowering crabapple, hexagon, square and rectangle. Other items include bowls, pots, stoves and earthen bowls.

Jun Kiln made its debut in the early Northern Song period and flourished in the late Northern Song. It is famous for its bronze-red glaze, which was an innovation of pottery making in ancient China. During the Jin (1115-1234)-Yuan (1271-1368) period, workshops around the country competed to perfect the wares made at the Jun Kiln. The kiln gradually declined after the Yuan Dynasty and stopped making pottery during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). It resumed production after the foundation of the new China.

Apart from the Juntai Jun Kiln Site, a number of Jun Kiln sites from the Song Dynasty were discovered in Henan Province, but they were on a much smaller scale and operated by locals.

Protected Sites:Jinniushan Site

lvjiyong@Gmail.com (John Lv) — Mon, 18 Dec 2006 15:38:00 +0800

The Jinniushan Site is located on an isolated mountain eight kilometers south of Dashiqiao in Yingkou County, Liaoning Province.

Rising about 70 meters above the sea level, the site contains three deposits from the Fourth Age from west to east. During the four excavations carried out between 1974 and 1978, a large number of animal fossils were unearthed along with traces of fire pits, which included burnt bones, earth, charcoal scraps and some chipped stone implements.

In September 1984, some human fossils and fire-pit traces were discovered at the site. The more than 50 human fossils discovered include a nearly complete skull, vertebra, rib, ulna and carpale -- all belonging to a recently matured male. Stoneware unearthed at the Jinniushan Site was mainly made using hammering and smashing techniques. The wares, including scraping and sharp-pointed tools, have a processing technique and style resembling that of the Peking Man period.

An ash layer about 30 centimeters thick was also discovered at the site, containing two sites of round ash heaps on the surface. Inside the heaps was burnt clay and bones, including rabbits, mice and deer bones. Such animals were frequently hunted by primitive humans of that period. The Jinniushan Site is rich in animal fossils and human fossils and its geological age belongs to the mid-Pleistocene Period.

The fossils of primitive humans are not only in large supply, but they are also well preserved. Even the few existing damaged fossils can be restored to their former states, guaranteeing the veracity of the archaeological study. This was the first time that such complete human fossils were unearthed at a single site in China, as well as in the world.

The Jinniushan Man dates back about 280,000 years and is considered more advanced than the Peking Man (closer in intelligence to the Dali Man of the early Homo Sapiens). The findings have provided new evidence for the study of human physical development from primitive human to Homo Sapiens.

Protected Sites :Jiangnu Stone Site

lvjiyong@Gmail.com (John Lv) — Mon, 18 Dec 2006 15:36:00 +0800

The Jiangnu Stone Site is located near Bohai Sea in Suizhong County, Liaoning Province.

Before 1982 Jiangnv Stone was known as a group of reefs protruding from the sea. The following year, upon its exploration, the site was identified as a series of ruins from the Qin (221-206BC)-Han (206BC-220AD) period. Full excavation procedures were carried out in April 1984. Of the Jiangnu Stone Coast and another six nearby sites, the Stone Tablet Site is the largest and built one year earlier than the others, which were erected no later than during the early Western Han Dynasty (206BC-8AD).

The Stone Tablet Site is over 500 meters long from south to north and over 260 meters wide from east to west, covering an area of about 150,000 square meters. Surrounded by walls, the site has a tampered-earth high platform with a set of steps built in the central south. The eight-meter-high platform sits in the north and faces the sea in the south, with a series of tampered-earth constructions built on both sides and behind it. The high platform and the densely distributed constructions face the Jiangnv Stone in the sea. The largest Jiangnu Stone -- black in color -- is 24 meters above sea level; 11 meters long from south to north; and eight meters wide from east to west.

Historical records suggest that the Jiangnu Stone was a stone tablet from the Qin-Han period. A number of eaves and tiles carved with Kui (a one-legged monster in Chinese folklore) patterns and huge, hollow bricks were unearthed at the Stone Tablet Site, including some grand buildings and foundations. Since such grand projects were beyond the capacity of ordinary prefectures and are therefore deemed to be imperial palaces. If the Jiangnu Stone was the stone tablet of the Qin-Han period, the site would have probably been where the First Qin Emperor stayed on his inspection tour to the east.

The Heishantou Site lies on a high and open land and comprises three groups of constructions with multiple steps. The constructions were probably the Viewing Sea Platforms where Emperor Wudi of the Han Dynasty stood when visiting the great stone.

Protected Sites:Site of Ding Kiln in Jianci Village

lvjiyong@Gmail.com (John Lv) — Mon, 18 Dec 2006 15:34:00 +0800

The Ding Kiln Site is located in Jianci Village of Quyang County, Hebei Province.

Ding Kiln was a famous site of the Song Dynasty (960-1279). First discovered by the Imperial Palace Museum in 1951, large-scale excavations were conducted by a Hebei cultural relics team at the Ding Kiln Site between 1960 and 1960. The findings indicate that the kiln was built during the late Tang Dynasty (618-907), flourished in the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127) and declined in the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368).

The Ding Kiln was famous for its white pottery wares, mainly shaped into bowls and plates. The ware has an exquisite base and a bright and smooth white glaze that reveals some blackish-yellow or grayish-yellow hues. Most of the wares were decorated with complicated, but clearly arranged prints or carvings depicting various flowers and animals. During the Northern Song Dynasty, the site became one of the important kilns in the north and produced a large number of exquisite wares for the imperial family and feudal officials. Wares made for the imperial family were mainly adorned with dragon-phoenix patterns that employed masterly crafts. Also unearthed at the site were a few black, dark reddish-brown and green-glazed shards.

As an important pottery kiln of the north, the Ding Kiln of Jianci Village greatly influenced the technical development around the country. Hebei, Shanxi as well as the provinces south of the Yangtze River all followed suit, thus forming the Ding Kiln Style. To date the unearthed pottery kilns belonging to the Ding Kiln Style include the Lincheng Kiln of Hebei Province, Longquanwu Kiln of Beijing, a number of kilns from Shanxi Province and Jingdezhen Kiln of Jiangxi Province.

Protected Sites:Site of the Yaozhou Kiln in Huangpu Town

lvjiyong@Gmail.com (John Lv) — Mon, 18 Dec 2006 15:34:00 +0800

The Site of the Yaozhou Kiln is located in Huangpu Town of Tongchuan City, Shaanxi Province.

The Yaozhou Kiln was one of the Six Famous Kilns in ancient China and also the main celadon-producing area in the north. It was reputed as the Ten-li Kiln (1 li=1/2 km.) for its grand scale.

Between 1984 and 1986, 14 pottery workshops from the Tang (618-907), Five Dynasties (907-960), Song (960-1279), Jin (1115-1234) and Yuan (1271-1368) periods were unearthed at the site, including 18 stoves, thousands of intact pottery wares and over 30,000 shards. All pottery wares and shards have a solid base of a high pottery content. The wares were adorned with hundreds of patterns, such as landscapes, human figures and flowers. The Yaozhou Kiln wares were painted with a greenish-black glaze to appear bright and smooth, like jade.

Also unearthed at the site are workshops that produced Tang San Cai (tri-colored glazed pottery of the Tang Dynasty) and over 1,000 other wares. Such a large scale indicated that the Yaozhou Kiln was a main base for making Tang San Cai. The long-lost Tang San Cai tiles and dragon decorations were also first unearthed at the site.

The discovery of the Yaozhou Kiln Site provides plenty of materials for the study of the Chinese history of ancient pottery, as well as the political, economical and cultural development of that period. The kiln site is reputed as a natural museum of ancient pottery due to its high academic value.

Protected Sites:Site of the Yaozhou Kiln in Huangpu Town

lvjiyong@Gmail.com (John Lv) — Mon, 18 Dec 2006 15:34:00 +0800

The Site of the Yaozhou Kiln is located in Huangpu Town of Tongchuan City, Shaanxi Province.

The Yaozhou Kiln was one of the Six Famous Kilns in ancient China and also the main celadon-producing area in the north. It was reputed as the Ten-li Kiln (1 li=1/2 km.) for its grand scale.

Protected Sites:Site of Hexian Ape Man

lvjiyong@Gmail.com (John Lv) — Mon, 18 Dec 2006 15:33:00 +0800

The Site of Hexian ape man is located on the northern slope of Jiangjia Mountain in Taodian Town, Hexian County of Anhui Province.

The site was the deposit of the Cambrian limestone cave where two excavations were carried out in October 1980 and June 1981. Discoveries included a human fossil skull, a section of a mandible, a top bone, an upper frontal bone, 11 molars and a frontal tooth. It was concluded that the fossils belonged to at least three ape men and the skull belonged to a young male who exhibited many typical features of Homo Erectus. The skull of the Hexian Man is generally similar to that of the Peking Man, but a little more advanced. This suggests that Hexian Man lived in the period of late Peking Man.

Moreover, a large number of vertebrate fossils were also unearthed along with the human fossils. According to initial studies, the animal fossils amounted to over 50 species belonging to the Pleistocene Period.

The discovery of Hexian Man provides important materials for the study into the origin and development of human beings, as well as comparing the similarities and differences between primitive humans of the south and the north.

Protected Sites :Gaxian Cave Site

lvjiyong@Gmail.com (John Lv) — Mon, 18 Dec 2006 15:32:00 +0800

The Gaxian Cave Site is located 10 kilometers northwest of Alihe Town in the Oroqen Banner of the Hulunbair League in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

The site lies at the eastern foot of the northern peak of the Great Hinggan Mountains. The cave is located on a 100-meter-high granite peak and towers at about 25 meters. The mouth of the cave is shaped like a triangle 12 meters high and 19 meters wide. The cave contains a wide space stretching 92 meters from south to north, 27 to 28 meters east to west and reaching over 20 meters at its highest peak. It covers an area of over 2,000 square meters, resembling a grand hall. To the northwest is an oblique cave nine meters wide, six to seven meters high and 22 meters long. About 11 meters up in the east wall of the grand hall is a five-meter-wide cave that is over 10 meters deep. In the middle of the grand hall lies an irregular natural stone board about 3.5 meters in length and three meters wide, with a 0.5-meter-high stone supporting it that resembles a stone table.

Located about 15 meters to the west wall is a line of stone inscriptions containing 19 rows and 201 characters, written in a style typical of the Northern Dynasties (386-581). The discovery of the Gaxian Cave provides precious archaeological materials for study into the cultural origin of such ethnic groups as the Serbi.

Protected Sites:Erlitou Site

lvjiyong@Gmail.com (John Lv) — Mon, 18 Dec 2006 15:31:00 +0800

The Erlitou Site, which dates back about 3,500 to 3,600 years ago, is located along the banks of the Luo River in the south of Erlitou Village in Yanshi County, Henan Province.

Discovered in 1959, the Erlitou Site is rich in a culture typical of the period; Erlitou Culture was, in turn, named after the area.

The site is divided into four periods, each with an area of three square kilometers. Remains of two palaces, a residential area, pottery and bronze workshops, and kilns and tombs were excavated at the site.

One of the palaces, which experts believe provided the foundation for Chinese palace architecture, is square in shape and measures 108 meters from east to west, 100 meters from south to north and 0.8 meters in height. Its front yard covers an area of 5,000 square meters, and winding corridors can be found on all four sides of the site.

Cultural relics, such as bronze ware, jade, pottery, stone, bone and mussel wares were unearthed at Erlitou, including the Jue (an ancient wine vessel with three legs and a loop handle), which, so far, has been the earliest bronze vessel ever excavated in China. The exquisite beast-headed bronze plate embedded with turquoise stones reveals a mastery of the enchasing technique.

According to archaeological studies, the Erlitou Site, which existed during the same period as the Xia Dynasty (21st-16th century BC), provides important material for the study of the Xia culture.

There are two schools of thought regarding the relationship between the Erlitou Site and the Xia culture at present. One says that the first and second periods of the site are the deposits from the Xia culture, while the third and fourth periods are the deposit of Bo Capital of the Shang Dynasty (16th-11th century BC). According to the second theory, the Erlitou Site is the city site of the Late Xia Dynasty.

Protected Sites: Dayao Site

lvjiyong@Gmail.com (John Lv) — Mon, 18 Dec 2006 15:30:00 +0800

Dayao Site is located near Dayao Village in the northeast of Hohehot Municipality, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

Lying in the highlands in front of Daqing Mountain, the site comprises two stoneware workshops -- one from the early Paleolithic Age and the other from the late Paleolithic Age. The Inner Mongolia Museum team carried out the first excavation at the site in 1976, and the second followed in October 1978.

Many large flint stones were unearthed in the early Paleolithic workshop, where pieces of chipped stone gallets, broken fragments and stone blocks were scattered around the site. There are some stone gallets typical of the age and a few well-shaped stone implements.

At the late Paleolithic site are many typical gallets and stone kernels, and a few stone implements, most of which are semi-manufactured or left over. The stone implements are simply designed and only a few varieties include chopping, sharp-pointed and scraping tools. Among the most common scraping tools, the tortoise-back-shaped ones are the most particular: they have a thick back shaped like that of a tortoise. These tools, typical of the age, can be used for skinning, slicing meat and processing leather.

The discovery of the Dayao Site provides important, concrete materials for the study of the stone-manufacturing process and crafts from the Paleolithic Age in China.

Protected Sites: Site of Celadon Kiln at Longquan

lvjiyong@Gmail.com (John Lv) — Mon, 18 Dec 2006 15:29:00 +0800

The site of the Longquan Kiln spreads across the Lishui area and its surrounding counties, including Wuyi, Yongjia, Wencheng and Taishun in Zhejiang Province.

The Longquan Kiln is one of the most famous celadon kilns in southern ancient China. Kiln sites are densely distributed in Longquan County (over 300). Sites containing porcelain of better quality are concentrated in Dayao Village, which was regarded as the center of the Longquan kilns. Hence, the kilns of that area are generally known as the Longquan Kilns.

The Longquan Kiln is located in the upper reaches of the Ou River in south Zhejiang Province. The county is abundant in porcelain, clay and pinewood, which was used for baking porcelain.

The Longquan Kiln was implemented in the early Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127) and reached its peak during late Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279). During the Northern Song and Southern Song period, the kiln mainly produced daily commodities, such as plates, bowls and kettles. Such wares adopted high techniques: enchasing flowers supplemented with dots and waves and floating clouds. The glaze used on Longquan wares was thin and of a cyan hue mixed with yellow.

During mid-Southern Song period, stoves, bottles and statues appeared in various patterns. Most of the decorations consisted of carved flowers, and the insides of bowls were adorned with cloud carvings. With its thin, almost translucent glaze, the kiln's technique had its own characteristics. Some of the most famous representatives include the pale, blue-glazed and plum, green-glazed wares that were created during the late Southern Song period. Wares from this period were rich in variety, including the ones imitating jade or bronze wares.

Due to the popularity of large wares, it was during the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368) that the kiln's technique experienced a great breakthrough. Following the mid-Ming (1368-1644) period, a large number of technicians moved away from the Longquan Kiln due to the thriving porcelain industry around the country, especially with the development of the porcelain capital, Jingdezhen, which triggered the decline of the Longquan Kiln.

Protected Sites:Dadiwan Site

lvjiyong@Gmail.com (John Lv) — Mon, 18 Dec 2006 15:28:00 +0800

The Dadiwan Site is located in the east of Nacun Village in Wuying Town, Qin'an County of Gansu Province.

Located about 45 kilometers from the county, the Dadiwan Site covers an area of over 360,000 square meters. The Gansu archaeological team carried out a six-year excavation project at the site from 1978 to the end of 1983, having unearthed over 200 house sites, 30 kilns and 8,000 pieces of cultural relics. According to the excavation data, Dadiwan is a site of the Neolithic Age that dates back 4,000 to 7,500 years ago.

Cultural relics found at the Dadiwan Site trace the development of manufacturing techniques as they evolved from the crude to the delicate. Early stone tools were simple, chipped implements, and only a select few were cut and polished. In the middle period, species and quantity increased along with technical development, resulting in cut and polished tools. In the late period, more complex and larger, more specialized and polished implements appeared, along with bone ware.

The technical development of pottery ware is more obvious. Among the unearthed pottery are red, gray and other ancient painted items made of clay pottery and sand pottery to form jars, pots, bottles, cups and wine vessels. Such items were painted with rope patterns and line shapes. Colored pottery includes such patterns as broad strips, arcs, triangles, stripes, fish, birds and geometric shapes composing dots, lines and arcs. Among the amaranth, black and white pieces, the round-bottomed pots with fish patterns and items embossed with three human figures are the most precious. The markings etched on a few wares provide new clues into the study of the origin of Chinese characters.

Most early house sites are half-pits that assume a round shape with a diameter of two to three meters, containing a small fireplace inside. Among the houses from the middle period are structures built on the ground besides half-pits with enlarged areas. In such houses the grounds were paved with small stones. During the late period, houses were mainly built on the ground and on a comparably large scale. The F405 House, for example, is about 14 meters in length and 11 meters wide, covering an area of about 150 square meters. It has a large room in the center and two small rooms on either side, with three doors open in each room. The remaining walls range from 0.1 to 0.9 meters in height. Over 100 wooden pillars were erected in the rooms, and 24 pillars stand near the walls for support. A huge kitchen ranging from 2.34 meters in diameter and 0.6 meters in height stands in the center of the hall. Its floor is smooth and solid with a thickness of 0.2 meters and paved with small stones mixed with earth. In another house, the floor contains charcoal drawings of human figures and animals.

The Dadiwan Site is rich in cultural relics and its layering of various cultures is clear and long-lasting. It is among the few Neolithic sites with a systemic chronicle sequence in east Gansu and the upper reaches of the Wei River, which plays a key role in archaeological study.

Protected Sites: Cishan Site

lvjiyong@Gmail.com (John Lv) — Mon, 18 Dec 2006 15:27:00 +0800

The Cishan Site spreads across the mesa on the northern banks of the Luo River, southwest of Wu'an County in Hebei Province.

Discovered in 1973, Cishan is the earliest site of the Neolithic Age found in North China. Preceding the Yangshao Culture, the site dates back to 5400 to 5100 BC. It is of key importance to the study of Yangshao Culture, as well as the cultural deposit of the Neolithic period. Owning to its unique features, the Cishan Culture was named after the site. To date, over 10 Cishan Culture sites were discovered in the central southern areas of Henan Province.

Agriculture was the main form of production back then. Two half-pit foundations surrounded by over 460 kilns, 80 of which were stored with carbonized millet, were discovered at the site. The millet deposits in some kilns were piled up over two meters high. Production tools, such as stone axes, knives, sickles, shovels and millstones used for grain processing, were spread around the site. People of that period learned how to raise livestock, such as chicken, pigs and dogs. Moreover, economic activities like fishing and collecting food also held an important position in people's lives.

A crucial feature of the Cishan Culture is its pottery making. Mainly red potteries mingled with sand were found in great varieties, including cups, bowls, plates, earthen bowls, three-legged wares, double-ear pots and jars. These items were decorated using rope or by etching patterns into the surface. Such crude techniques, however, were inferior to those used by the Yangshao Culture.

Protected Sites: Chuandong Site

lvjiyong@Gmail.com (John Lv) — Mon, 18 Dec 2006 15:26:00 +0800

The Chuandong Site is located on an isolated mountain, five kilometers west of Puding County, Guizhou Province.

The limestone cave was named Chuandong (through cave) due to its passage from the south end to the north end. Located 26 meters above ground, the cave was formed on the 87-meter-high mountainside and measures nine meters in height, 13 meters in width and 18 meters in length from the inside. First discovered in the autumn of 1978, the site was excavated by the Guizhou Museum team in May 1979. Over 100 relics were unearthed, including stone, bone and fossils. According to scientific studies, the site dates back over 10,000 years to the late Paleolithic Age.

In 1981 and 1983, the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Science and the Guizhou Museum jointly carried out excavations at the site and unearthed over 10,000 old stone implements, such as axes, hammers and knives, including over 1,000 polished bone implements. Also discovered at the site was a large number of fossils of over 10 mammal species, such as deer, porcupine, bear and tiger, including fire sites. Moreover, the excavation team unearthed about 100 human fossils, including a complete skull, mandibles, thighbones, and teeth, etc.

The most representative relics discovered at the Chuandong Site are the polished bone implements, such as needles, mallets and shovels. So many bone implements, made in such varieties and with such high craftsmanship, are seldom seen in China. The relics, therefore, provide precious raw materials for the study of the type, use and craft of bone implements used during the Chinese Paleolithic period.

Protected Sites: Tongguan Kiln Site in Changsha

lvjiyong@Gmail.com (John Lv) — Mon, 18 Dec 2006 15:25:00 +0800

The Tongguan Kiln Site spreads over an area of about five kilometers from Tongguan Town to Shizhu Lake in Wangcheng County of Changsha City, Hunan Province.

The site is one of the important kiln sites of the Tang Dynasty (618-907) in China. The 13 remaining kilns at the site are mainly scattered throughout Lan'anzui, Wazhaping, and Lanjiapo. Two excavations were carried out in 1965 and 1978.

A large number of unearthed color-glazed ware proved that the technique was incorporated no later than the Tang Dynasty. The pottery comes in a large variety, and is both exquisitely shaped and practical. The pieces are decorated with green-colored patterns depicting human figures, animals, plants and natural landscapes and reflecting the masterly crafts of pottery making from the Tang period. Moreover, most of the items have inscribed poems or other scripts -- an important feature of the pieces unearthed at the Tongguan Kiln Site.

Although Tongguan Kiln porcelain was popular around the Jianghuai area, it was also discovered in Japan, Korea and Indonesia. Museums in Britain, the United States and Sweden also have such collections from the Tongguan Kiln. The discovery of the Tongguan Kiln is of great importance to the study of China's porcelain history.

Protected Sites: Beiting Ancient City Site

lvjiyong@Gmail.com (John Lv) — Mon, 18 Dec 2006 15:24:00 +0800

The Beiting Ancient City is located in Hubaozi, about 12 kilometers north of Jimusaer County in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

The city, developed from Tingzhou City of the Tang Dynasty (618-907), was a town of military importance in North China until its desolation in the early Ming (1368-1644).

In 1820 during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), Chinese scholar Xu Song carried out the first site study and discovered some precious cultural relics, such as stone tablets from the Tang Dynasty. Between 1979 and 1980, the Archaeological Research Institute of the Chinese Social Science Academy discovered a large number of clay statues and exquisite frescos at a Buddhist temple site from the Gaochang Huihu period , about 700 meters north of the city.

The ancient city was built on a large scale, assuming an irregular oblong shape. The inner city is located in the northeast part of the central outer city. The outer city has a perimeter of 4,596 meters, while the inner one measures 3,003 meters. The 10-meter-high city walls were built with tampered earth about eight to 12 meters thick. The city is surrounded by military defense works, such as the city moat. Original constructions from within the city no longer exist, with the exception of three damaged city-wall bases and nine other dilapidated sites, two of which are temples.

According to analyses, the outer city was built during the Zhenguan reign of the Tang Dynasty (627-649), while the inner city was built during the Gaochang Huihu period, A large number of cultural relics from the Tang period were unearthed at the site, including flat and round tiles, square bricks with lotus-flower patterns, bronze official seals, bronze lions, stone lions, bronze mirrors, stone balls, pipes and porcelain wares.

Protected Sites: Beiting Ancient City Site

lvjiyong@Gmail.com (John Lv) — Mon, 18 Dec 2006 15:24:00 +0800

The Beiting Ancient City is located in Hubaozi, about 12 kilometers north of Jimusaer County in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

The city, developed from Tingzhou City of the Tang Dynasty (618-907), was a town of military importance in North China until its desolation in the early Ming (1368-1644).

Protected Sites:Dongjing City Site of the Northern Song Dynasty

lvjiyong@Gmail.com (John Lv) — Mon, 18 Dec 2006 15:21:00 +0800

The Dongjing City Site of the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127) is located near Kaifeng City in Henan Province.

Dongjing City, also known as Bianjing or Bianliang, was the capital city during the Northern Song Dynasty. Recent archaeological excavations have revealed the overall arrangement of Bianjing Ancient City, which consisted of three parts: the outer city, inner city and palace.

Square in shape, the outer city is 7.5 meters long from south to north and 7 kilometers wide from east to west with 13 gates and seven floodgates. The city was surrounded by a famous moat named the Dragon Protection Moat over 30 meters wide.

The palace, also known as the imperial city, sits inside the inner city. According to historical records, the imperial city had a perimeter of five li (1 li=1/2 km). In the grand palace are pavilions, terraces and towers with carved beams and columns. The city gates were painted red and have gild nails; they are decorated with flying dragons, phoenixes and floating clouds. The palace can be divided into three sections: the south, middle and north. The central government was located in the south part and included over 3,000 houses. The middle section was designated for the emperor to meet with officials. And the northern section was the imperial harem. Such an arrangement with three rings of cities was imitated by architects of the Yuan (1271-1368), Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1840) Dynasties, and had a great influence on city constructions of later generations.

Protected Sites: Ang'angxi Site

lvjiyong@Gmail.com (John Lv) — Mon, 18 Dec 2006 15:04:00 +0800

Ang'angxi Site is located near Ang'angxi Town in Qiqihaer City, Heilongjiang Province.

There is a large dune area located at the site near Ang'angxi Town. To date cultural relics were unearthed in four dunes. Tombs were discovered at the excavations in 1928 and 1930. After the foundation of the new China, a large number of fine stoneware and pottery were discovered at the site along with some ash pits and more tomb sites. The site belongs to the Neolithic Age during both the early and late periods.

Stoneware unearthed at the site can be grouped into three categories: fine stone implements, large chipped-stoneware and polished ware. Of the stoneware, the fine stone implements were most abundant, including arrowheads, sharp-pointed ware, scraping ware, knife-shaped tools and trapezoid-shaped gallets. Stone arrowheads were made of chert and stone marrow. The trapezoid-shaped gallet was embedded in the knife handle. Polished ware included knives and plates.

Bone ware mainly consisted of spearheads and fish darts -- the longest measuring about 16.4 centimeters. Such fishing tools tied to the end of the spear are very common at the Ang'angxi Site. Also many animal bones were unearthed at the site, indicating that fishing played an important role in people's lives back then.

Pottery discovered at the site was made by hand in a simple style. The underdeveloped pottery craft probably resulted from the period's backward agriculture.

Protected Sites: Zhoukoudian Site

lvjiyong@Gmail.com (John Lv) — Mon, 18 Dec 2006 15:00:00 +0800

The Zhoukoudian Site is located on Dragon Bone Hill at Zhoukoudian Village in Fangshan District of Beijing.
In 1918, a site of ancient animal fossils was discovered in Zhoukoudian by Antson, a Swedish geologist and archaeologist appointed as the consultant by the then Northern Warlords ruling government. In 1921, Antson and an Austrian paleontologist, guided by local people, discovered more fossil deposits on the north slope of the Dragon Bone Hill, known as the Zhoukoudian first site, where they found two fossil teeth of human being. In 1927, Swedish paleo-vertebrate zoologist B. Bulin and Chinese geologist Li Jie led a large-scale excavation in the first site. On December 2, 1929, Chinese renowned archaeologist Pei Wenzhong independently launched another excavation and discovered the first skull fossil of ape man which was named as the Peking Man. It was identified as being at least 600,000 years old. The news of finding the Peking Man shocked the academic circle around the world. In the following excavations, a number of relics of stone tools and sites where Peking Man used fire were discovered on the Dragon Bone Hill. The study on these findings indicates that Peking Man lived about 690,000 years ago and could walk erectly. They lived on hunting animals, could make and use coarse stone tools and learned how to use fire to cook food. Peking Man lived in the early Paleolithic period.

Before the discovery of Peking Man, Neanderthal Man and Boxgrove Man found in Germany as well as Java Man had not received recognition from the world's academic circle. Even evolutionists had not reached a unanimous conclusion on the origin of human beings and the role those fossils played in the evolution process. The discovery of Peking Man's skull fossil, stone tools and fire-using sites solved the controversy over the existence of erected man and basically determined the sequence of human evolution, providing strong evidence to the theory of from ape to man.

So far, bone segments from the bodies of about 40 humans have been excavated in the Zhoukoudian Site, with which the Peking Man's basic features can be restored. Besides, a total number of over 100, 000 stones tools and fossils of vertebrate have also been discovered in the site. Relic site of such richness is seldom seen in the world.

Fossils of primitive men living 18,000 years ago were excavated under the leadership of Mr. Pei Wenzhong in 1933 and were named Upper Cave Man fossils. The Upper Cave Man had primitive Mongoloid features, with well-developed intelligence. Bone needles and various ornaments were also excavated at the place together with the earliest burial ground in China. Study proves that the Upper Cave Man not only were experienced in hunting and fishing but also knew how to use bone needle to make up fell clothes and learned comparatively advanced technique to make ornaments. The rudiments of primitive religion came into being at this time. The Upper Cave Man entered into the late Paleolithic period.

When the Pacific War broke out in December 1941, a large number of fossils of Peking Man and Upper Cave Man and stone tools excavated in the Zhoukoudian Site were shipped away by Americans. These precious cultural relics have not been found since then, making it a big unsettled case that draws the world's attention.