Wanshouyan National Archaeological Site Park

Wanshouyan National Archaeological Site Park
万寿岩国家考古遗址公园

Address: Yanqian town, Sanquan district, Sanming city, Fujian province
Hours: 9am - 4:30pm
Closed Mondays
General admission: Free
Tel: (+86-598) 8388036, 8242151

The Wanshouyan site is a Paleolithic archaeological find located on Wanshouyan,a mountain peak in the karst landscape of Sanming city, in East China's Fujian province. At least three of the 20 caves that have developed in this limestone peak contain significant Paleolithic archaeological discoveries.

More than 800 stone artifacts and mammal bones have been unearthed at the site, spanning four geological periods, and proving the existence of human activity in the area as early as 200,000 years ago.The Wanshouyan site consists of two of the most important components: the Chuanfan cave site and the Lingfeng cave site.

In Chuanfan cave, not only have common Paleolithic relics, such as stone tools and mammal fossils, been unearthed, but also blue and white porcelain fragments, blue bricks and temple remains datingbackto the more recent Song (960-1279) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties. Rare remains of 30,000-year-old pebble floors and drainage grooves have also been discovered.

Lingfeng cave has been identified as the oldest Paleolithic site in East China, and has proved groundbreaking in terms of evidencing the presence of humans, with the unearthing of stone knives, scraping devices, and hammering tools dating back 180,000 to 200,000 years. In addition, some of the 30,000-year-old stone artifacts found here are very similar to those of the same period in Taiwan, which is of great significance in the study of the protocultural connections of Fu-jian and Taiwan.

The Wanshouyan National Archaeological Site Park, which was completed and opened in June 2019, includes the Wanshouyan site itself, the site museum, visitor facilities, and two ecological restoration areas.