Situated about 50 km southwest of Beijing, Zhoukoudian is a small village embraced by a chain of mountains from the northwest and rolling hills from the northeast. The Peking Man Site is just on the west side of Zhoukoudian Village.

In February 1918, Johann Gunnar Anderson, a Swedish geologist and archaeologist, was told that there were some fossils at a hill near Zhoukoudian. He showed much interest and, in the following month, made a survey at the hill where a lot of rodent fossil was collected. This discovery of the rodent fossil is not so important, but the survey led to a series of investigations in the region.

   

In 1921, when Anderson and Otto Zdansky, an Austrian palaeontologist, made another survey at Zhoukoudian, local people told them that there were more fossils on Dragon Bone Hill. They started an excavation and found some animal fossils and quartz fragments. The excavation brought along the discovery of two human-like teeth. One year later, they continued the excavation at the locality. At the welcome ceremony for the Swedish Prince's visit to China on the 22nd of October in 1926, Andersson announced the discovery of two teeth of early man from Zhoukoudian. The news astonished the scientific world since at that time there had not been any discovery of any such ancient human fossil in China nor any other country in Asia.

An American geologist, A. William Grabau, gave the specimen a popular name - "Peking Man". According to the development of anthropology, the species is nowadays attributed to Homo erectus pekinensis. Many people, however, still call it Peking Man.

In 1928, Dr C. C. Young, a famous Chinese paleontologist, and Wenzhong Pei, a young Chinese geologist joined the excavation. Two lower jaws of Peking Man were unearthed in this year. To make the excavation more successful, Dr Weng and Dr Black established "Cenozoic Research Laboratory" in 1929.

It was in a branching cave on the 2nd of December in 1929 where a fissure crosses the main cave that Dr. Pei found the first and almost complete skull cap of Peking Man in the red sandy clay. The discovery made a sensation in the scientific world. The two human-like teeth found before were not enough to convince everyone that they belong to Peking Man, but the skullcap gives more anatomical proof and was much more convincing.

As another representative of ape man, Peking Man came on stage. Homo erectus is different from the ape in physical characters and cranial capacity. He was able to engage in creative behaviour, develop culture, control fire, and hunt big animals. The discovery of Peking Man enabled one to solve the long-lasting polemics that had continued since the discovery of Java man in the 19th century and proved that Homo erectus evolved from the ape. It has established the erect man stage which occupies the intermediate stage in human evolution. The discovery brought a sudden progress in the theory of human origin and evolution. Peking Man stands as an everlasting monument in the history of paleoanthropological research.

Unfortunately, when the Japanese invaded China in 1937, excavation at the Peking Man site was interrupted. In World War II the five skullcaps of Peking Man were lost and it was thought that an attempt was made to smuggle them to America, sadly they have never been traced.

Shortly after the founding the New China in 1949, the excavation suspended for 12 years was resumed. Since then in 1951, 1958-1960, and 1978-1980 excavation was in progress.

At present there is a museum which exhibits some fossils excavated from the site and provides more information about Homo erectus as well. In addition, one can see the actual caves in which Peking man and Hilltop Caveman lived. The cave at Locality No.1 originally measured 140 meters from east to west. Its width was irregular and it had a height of more than 40 meters. The cave was first occupied approximately 500,000 years ago, and it is estimated that Peking Man maintained this residence over the course of a quarter of a million years.

Until today, Peking Man holds as ever a realistic and scientific value. The Peking Man Site is representing the most comprehensively and systematically studied site of Homo erectus. The Peking Man Site also provides the more precise scientific data for the study of the evolution, behaviour, and paleoenvironment of Homo erectus than contemporary African and European sites.