Wanshouyan Site Museum

Wanshouyan Site Museum

The Wanshouyan Site is situated approximately 500 meters northwest of Yanqian Village, Yanqian Town, Sanyuan District, Sanming City, and is a typical karst cave-type Paleolithic site in southern China. Between September 1999 and 2004, three rounds of archaeological excavation were conducted. The discovery of a 40,000-year-old man-made stone-paved floor and drainage ditches in the Shipan Cave marked the first such find in China and is extremely rare worldwide. This discovery pushed back the history of human activity in Fujian by 185,000 years and holds great significance for research on the cultural origins shared by Fujian and Taiwan.

The Wanshouyan Site Museum in Sanming City is the only museum in Fujian Province dedicated to a Paleolithic site. Covering an area of 5,600 square meters with a building area of 2,500 square meters, it opened to the public in November 2006. In 2014, the museum underwent renovation and upgrade, reopening to the public in October of the same year.

The Wanshouyan Site serves as a scientific research and science education base for the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, a science education base for Fujian Province, and a provincial-level patriotism education base. In 2017, it was designated as part of the third batch of National Archaeological Site Parks by the National Cultural Heritage Administration.

Further reading:

· Third-grade National Museum of China