Zhoukoudian

Zhoukoudian lies about 42 kilometres southwest of central Beijing in Fangshan district and ranks among the world's most important early-human fossil sites. The place became famous when, between 1923 and 1937, a karst cave system yielded the bones of what is now called Peking Man - Homo erectus pekinensis, dated between roughly 750,000 and 200,000 years old. The original fossils were lost in the chaos of the Second World War while being shipped to the United States and are still missing; the on-site museum displays casts and later finds. Zhoukoudian was inscribed as UNESCO World Heritage in 1987. Visitors can climb Dragon Bone Hill and Upper Cave and follow early human tool-making and the use of fire in the reconstructed museum.