Maozhu Mountain and Guanshan Sites

　　    The Maozhu Mountain and Guanshan Sites are located in Luoxi Village, Xijin Subdistrict, about four to five kilometers northwest of Ningguo City, Xuancheng, Anhui Province. These are Paleolithic cultural sites. They lie 600 meters east of the Xijin River and 150 meters from the Anhui–Jiangxi Railway, situated respectively on two ridges running southwest to northeast, 500 meters apart. They were surveyed and discovered by the Anhui Provincial Institute of Archaeology in late 1986 and excavated in 1997. The site is roughly semi-circular, measuring 10 meters in length and 6 meters in width. Over 1,100 gravel pieces and stone artifacts were unearthed, mainly including choppers, scrapers, pointed choppers, stone balls, and pointed tools. The central part of the site features a blank area of about four to five square meters. The site is buried at the base of the reticulated red earth, dating geologically to the middle Middle Pleistocene. The Guanshan Site was discovered in 1987 and excavated by the Anhui Provincial Institute of Archaeology in 1993 and 1996. Unearthed Paleolithic artifacts include flakes, cores, choppers, scrapers, and picks. In May 2013, it was designated and announced by the State Council as part of the seventh batch of Major Historical and Cultural Sites Protected at the National Level.