Millions of Years in Time

▲A simulation of hominin disassembling a steppe mammoth at the Nihewan Site Museum, Zhangjiakou, Hebei province. WANG FAGANG/FOR CHINA DAILY

New Hebei museum illuminates East Asia's longest continuous human record, Zhang Yu reports in Shijiazhuang.

In the heart of a landscape that is itself a vast archive, a new museum has risen to decipher one of humanity's longest and most continuous records.

On a windswept terrace in Yangyuan county, Zhangjiakou, North China's Hebei province, the Nihewan Site Museum has opened its doors, offering a gateway to a past that stretches back an astonishing 1.76 million years. This modern facility, currently operating on a trial basis, stands atop ground that chronicles nearly uninterrupted human activity in East Asia.

The museum's location is its first and most powerful statement.

Situated in the core area of the Nihewan Paleolithic sites and part of the Nihewan National Archaeological Park, it allows visitors to look out from its observation platforms onto the very landforms where this deep history was buried and later uncovered.

▲A reconstruction of the chalicothere, an extinct mammal. WANG FAGANG/FOR CHINA DAILY

With a construction area of more than 7,000 square meters and nearly 5,000 sq m devoted to exhibitions, the museum is designed to narrate a story of epic scale and profound continuity.

That narrative entered modern science a century ago, when in 1924, American geologist G. B. Barbour formally identified the "Nihewan Bed" after an on-site inspection.

"That marked the beginning of systematic scientific investigation here," says Wang Fagang, a researcher at the Hebei Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology.

Over the past century, this work has revealed a sequence so complete that it has revolutionized understanding of early history. "It is the site with the longest duration and the most complete Paleolithic cultural sequence in East Asia," says Xie Fei, 72 and a reputed archaeologist.

Xie has worked at Nihewan since 1983. "It is the region with the most complete sequence of human evolution outside of Africa and Israel," he adds.

Confronted with such an immense and technically complex record, the museum's core challenge was clear: how to make this deep scientific history accessible to a general audience. Its exhibitions, arranged chronologically across eight thematic halls, guide visitors from the ancient Nihewan Basin and its diverse animal life through key stages of human evolution.

"One of the biggest challenges was how to present materials that look very simple to the untrained eye,"Wang says. "Stones and bones don't automatically tell their stories."

▲An installation depicting early humans hunting. WANG FAGANG/FOR CHINA DAILY

The solution, he explains, lay in emphasizing Nihewan's greatest strength: its long, continuous chain of cultural development.

"One of Nihewan's major advantages is the sheer number of sites that span an exceptionally long period," Wang says. "That allows us to show a clear progression, from the very beginning through later stages. Visitors can see and feel how change accumulated over time."

To make this history less abstract, the museum employs a mix of authentic artifacts and immersive technology. Life-sized reconstructions of extinct animals, including saber-toothed tigers, populate the galleries, offering a visceral sense of the environments early humans inhabited.

Animated projections visualize geological formations and animal migrations. Interactive screens and VR stations allow visitors to manipulate 3D models of stone tools, and understand the mechanics of their manufacture and use.

Among the most striking installations is an immersive diorama recreating the "First Feast" scene from the Majuangou site at Nihewan, which boasts 17 early Pleistocene cultural layers.

Another immersive installation brings to life the 40,000-year-old Xiamabei site also at Nihewan, showcasing the earliest-known evidence in East Asia of ochre pigment processing — an activity widely associated with symbolic behavior.

Within this high-tech environment, key artifacts anchor the story with undeniable physical presence.

Wang points to a 1.5-million-year-old bone tool from the Majuangou site.

"It was made from a herbivore limb bone, meticulously shaped. The pattern of scars shows it wasn't broken for marrow but was likely a planned digging tool," he says.

He says they have found over 100 decorative items from Xinmiaozhuang site's Location 5, mainly beads made from shell, ostrich eggshell and bone tubes, and some are so finely made.

This tangible evidence vividly illustrates a central theme running through the museum — the gradual but profound evolution of cognition and technology.

Xie points to a major leap from simple flakes to composite microblade tools around 20,000 years ago. He adds a remarkable insight.

▲Replicated steppe mammals at the Nihewan Site Museum. The discovery of the world's earliest steppe mammoth remains at the Majuangou site, dating back 1.66 million years, provides evidence for the origins of the steppe mammoth in North China. WANG FAGANG/FOR CHINA DAILY

"At the 1.1-million-year-old Cenjiawan site (at Nihewan), scholars see 'prepared core technology' — among the earliest evidence of this advanced technique in the world, earlier than finds in Africa or Europe," he says.

Yet here, the small-tool tradition shows incredible local continuity for over a million years.

The museum is designed not as an isolated showcase but as the interpretive heart of a living landscape.

It sits within a wider archaeological park. A new ring road connects it to the open-air sites and dramatic stratified cliffs of the surrounding park, bridging the indoor narrative with the outdoor source.

A century of archaeological exploration and now the museum's opening have profoundly changed the local community. Zhang Baolin, 59, from nearby Shandui village, remembers a very different past.

"This land was just slopes and fields. When we farmed, we'd sometimes find big, strange bones and throw them aside. We didn't know they were treasures."

He says "now people call this the homeland of Eastern humans. We feel proud that the scientists working year after year in the dust have put Nihewan on the world map".

For visitors, this convergence of place, science and community creates a powerful experience. Liu Guibing, a 56-year-old teacher, finds it transformative.

"It overturned my perception. I used to think the core human story was in Africa. Here, I see activity going back 1.76 million years with a complete sequence," Liu says.

He was particularly struck by the display tracing the evolution of tools."Seeing the stones change from rough to refined, you can almost feel the leap in human thinking."

The museum is free of charge and requires a real-name reservation one day in advance. According to Wang, the best time to visit is from July to October. Accessible by car about three hours from Beijing, it can be combined with trips to Yuxian county's ancient fortresses or nearby Great Wall sections.

For Wang and his colleagues, the opening is a beginning. "Our goal is to build a fully functional, international-standard Paleolithic museum," he says.

The vision of the "Nihewan Oriental Human Origins Project", as Xie outlines, is to "enhance research capabilities, expand Nihewan's influence, and cultivate talent for Chinese Paleolithic archaeology".

The Nihewan Site Museum presents a universal chapter in the human story, inviting global explorers to witness where life in East Asia not only endured, but also continuously evolved for over a million years.

Contact the writer at zhangyu1@chinadaily.com.cn