Last updated 2026-11-15 — Xiaohui Cave got its name from ancient times when people dug in the cave to extract saltpeter. It is located on the north bank of the Sancha River, 23 kilometers northwest of the central city, in the vicinity of the current Shuicheng Power Plant. Discovered in the summer of 1973, it is another ancient human cultural site found in Guizhou Province after the Guanyin Cave in Qianxi and the Yanhui Cave in Tongzi. It is the second Paleolithic site in Guizhou where human fossils have been discovered. From that winter to the following spring, the site was excavated and cleared by the provincial museum. This cave is a limestone karst cave, with its entrance facing south, situated 40 meters above the current river level and at an altitude of 1,700 meters. The deposits inside the cave measure 1.5 meters in length, 0.3–1 meter in width, and 0.1–0.7 meter in thickness, and are divided into three layers from top to bottom. In the third layer of deposits, one fossilized human tooth was unearthed — the left upper canine of an elderly male. The tooth is sturdy, with a relatively intact root and a slightly missing tip. Its occlusal surface is heavily worn. The mesiodistal diameter is 9.3 mm, the labiolingual diameter is 9.8 mm, and the root length is 19 mm. The tooth is yellow in color and highly fossilized. According to expert research, it is more advanced than “Peking Man,” but more primitive than “Liujian Man” and “Upper Cave Man,” and was thus named “Shuicheng Man.” Alongside it, multiple fossils were found, including those of the Stegodon orientalis, wild ox, wild goat, wild boar, and wild deer. A total of 53 stone tools were also excavated, consisting of 20 stone hammers and 33 stone flakes. Among these, five were made using the hammering technique, while 28 were produced via the hard hammer percussion technique. The hard hammer percussion method used to craft stone tools was the main technique employed by the ancient humans in this cave. To date, this is a unique tool-making technique discovered among all Paleolithic sites in China and may represent a new regional culture. Within a 0.5-meter-thick layer of ash, various colors of ash, burnt bones, and burnt stones were found. Xiaohui Cave is the earliest and richest site in southern China demonstrating the use of fire by ancient humans. Its geological age has been determined as the Late Pleistocene, approximately 200,000 years ago. Due to road construction, most of the cave has been destroyed, leaving only a cultural stratigraphic profile on the rear left side. The site holds significant archaeological value for studying the evolution and development of prehistoric humans. It was designated as a provincial-level cultural relics protection unit on February 23, 1982.