Giant Ape Cave

　　The Gaoping Giant Ape Cave is situated on the mountainside of the Taiyangcao area, southwest of Gaodianzi Township in Gaoping County, about 33 kilometers northeast of Jianshi County. The eastern entrance is triangular, measuring 2 meters in height and 3.8 meters in width, while the western entrance is rectangular, standing 2.1 meters high and 1.8 meters wide. Inside, the cave takes on a tunnel-like shape, with smooth walls and a relatively flat floor that shows little variation in elevation. There are two side chambers within. The eastern passage winds regularly in directions from northeast to southwest and northwest to southeast. Upon entering from the eastern mouth, the space is initially narrow, but after crawling for twenty to thirty meters, it gradually opens up. After about a hundred meters, there is a pool of water, muddy and impassable. Turning westward, the passage becomes rugged and dry, with accumulated soil layers over ten meters deep. It leads to the western cave entrance, where faint light can be seen through soil and rock partially blocking the outside. One can crawl out by bracing against rocks and pushing through the yellow earth. The entire cave system stretches 315 meters in length.

　　In the 1970s, local farmers, seeking to profit by excavating "dragon bones" from the cave to sell, scraped away mud at the eastern entrance and unearthed fossils, which they sold to supply cooperatives. These fossils were eventually exported to Hong Kong, where they caught the attention of paleoanthropology experts from the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Tracing the source back to Gaoping in Jianshi, these experts subsequently discovered over 30,000 fossilized giant ape teeth. The cave’s geographical coordinates are 110° east longitude and 30°39′ north latitude, with the cave floor sitting at an elevation of 740 meters. Below lies an ancient riverbed now dried up, filled only with various sizes of pebbles and sand. To the north, a small stream flows from the south into the cave, traveling underground for 2,000 meters before resurfacing. The cave hosts a remarkably diverse range of associated animal fossil layers, a phenomenon rarely seen in the world. Since the 1970s, experts such as Zheng Shaohua from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences have conducted multiple scientific investigations in Jianshi. The research topic “Study on the Origins of Early Humans and Their Environmental Background” was included in China’s national “Ninth Five-Year Plan Climbing Project.” The site has been designated as a provincial-level cultural heritage protection unit by the People’s Government of Hubei Province. Today, an archway and exhibition wall have been erected at the eastern and western ends of the cave, facing the “318” National Highway, as well as the future expressway and the Wanzhi Railway.