This pyramid-like mountain is the Wanshouyan National Archaeological Site Park in Sanming, southeast China’s Fujian Province.
At the end of the last century, a large number of stone tools made by ancient humans and mammal fossils were unearthed here, which brought back the time of human activities in Fujian to 185,000 years ago.
But at that time, a steel mill bought the limestone mining rights there, expecting to bring hundreds of millions of yuan in income to the local area.
A difficult problem arose: should we choose huge economic benefits, or "a few mammal fossils"? The debate reached the provincial government.
In January 2000, Xi Jinping, the acting governor of Fujian Province at the time, issued instructions: Sanming Iron and Steel Mill should stop the blasting work immediately, and actively cooperate with the Provincial Department of Culture in the protection and archaeological excavation of cave sites.
After that, the provincial government also allocated 500,000 yuan for the archaeological excavation and protection of the Wanshouyan Site, and helped Sanming Iron and Steel Mill choose a new mining site elsewhere.
In 2019, Wanshouyan National Archaeological Site Park officially opened.
Today, if you visit, you will get a chance to see Xi’s instructions, which have left a precious historical mark for the world.
