Great Wall of China
Great Wall
Several sections of the Great Wall of China, a man-made
phenomenon that has become a symbol of Chinese civilisation, can be
viewed in the Beijing area. In Yanqing county in northwest Beijing
is the 600-year-old Badaling Fortification, representative of the
Ming dynasty sections of the Great Wall. Other sections can be seen
at Jinshanling, Mutianyu and Simatai. The Great Wall, 4,000 miles
(6,350km) long, was built in stages from the 7th century BC
onwards, snaking its way across the mountains and valleys of five
provinces in northern China as a mammoth defence bulwark.
Zhoukoudian Cave
About 25 miles (40km) south of Beijing in the Fangshan District
is the Zhoukoudian Cave, source of the largest collection of Homo
Erectus fossils from any single site in the world. The fossils
recovered from Zhoukoudian represent about forty individuals. Most
famous of these remains is a cranium element commonly known as the
'Peking Man', the world's earliest fire-using primitive man who
lived between 200,000 and 700,000 years ago. German anatomist Franz
Weidenreich studied the Peking Man remains in the 1930s and
recognised 12 anatomical features that he believed Peking Man
shared with modern Chinese, a milestone in the study of
paleoanthropology. Visitors to the Zhoukoudian site on Dragon Bone
Hill can view a comprehensive seven-room exhibition of fossils and
artefacts depicting human evolution and the lifestyle of primitive
man. Visitors can also enter the cave where the Peking Man cranium
and other homo erectus remains were found.
Admission: ¥20 (adults), concessions available
