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A member of staff working at Lingfeng cave peers down into the Wanshouyan. The site has proven incredibly important in China’s archeological research. It remains the oldest Paleolithic site in East China and helps archeologists to understand the lives of people who inhabited the region more than 180,000 years ago. [Photo/Xinhua] |
However, local residents, including five retired teachers from Yanqian village were determined to protect the site and were wary of the potential damage inflicted by the mining. One such in individual was Wang Yuanlin, who strongly believed the mining company needed to be stopped in order to protect this remarkable heritage left behind by ancestors.
The man, now 88 years-old, began writing to the government urging the cessation of mining and eventually Fujian Provincial Government coordinated with the steel company to stop its operations. The five former teachers took on the mantle of digging and their efforts were soon rewarded. Wang Benzeng, Party Secretary of Yanqian village, which lies in the vicinity of the famed archeological site, talked about the process of discovery in a recent interview.
"In 1998, we started the digging work day and night at the Wanshouyan Site under the leadership of the five retired teachers. To our amazement, we finally found a big block of rock fossil and the experts that examined it claimed that it was more 100,000 years old. From this point onwards, archaeologists started to take note. We are hopeful that the Wanshouyan Site will continue to be well-preserved. "
The fossil was, as Wang Benzeng puts it, a very fortunate discovery and one that allowed the site to be listed for protection. The site was properly excavated in 1999-2000 with around 800 significant objects found during the two-year period.
President Xi Jinping, while serving as Fujian province’s acting governor in 2000, stressed the correctly conserving the 1,200 square meter site.
