People visit a cave at the Wanshouyan Cultural Heritage Museum in Sanming, Fujian province, earlier this year. (JIANG KEHONG / XINHUA)

Deng Yueling started work at the Wanshouyan Cultural Heritage Museum in Sanming, Fujian province, in April. Initially, though, the Stone Age artifacts on display did not interest her.

Since then, the 24-year-old tour guide has delved deeper into the history of the Paleolithic (about 2 million to 10,000 years ago) stone tools and animal bones discovered in a cave on nearby Wanshouyan Hill.

The artifacts suggest that humans lived in the area about 185,000 years ago, the oldest evidence of such activity in coastal China.

"The more I learn, the prouder I feel about the archaeological discoveries in my hometown," said Deng, who is from Yanqian, a village about 800 meters from the spot where the relics were found.

When she guides visitors round the museum, Deng always explains the story behind the discovery of the artifacts and how they survived potentially devastating mining activities more than 20 years ago.

"Without instructions from President Xi Jinping, who was then acting governor of Fujian province, the heritage would not have been preserved," she said.

Deng added that she was impressed by Xi's insistence that no one should harm the interests of future generations simply for the sake of immediate interests.

The relics were discovered in 1999, sparking fierce debate between locals and Sanming Steel Group, a major State-owned enterprise that had used the area as a quarry for high-quality limestone since the 1970s.

Workers undertake an archaeological dig at the museum site in the late 1990s. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

As the company sought to expand its quarrying activities on Wanshouyan Hill in the late 1990s, mining facilities, cement plants and other factories mushroomed in the area.

Local people believed the hills symbolized their veneration of nature and their homeland, while the ruins of a Song Dynasty (960-1279) temple were believed to safeguard their peaceful way of life.

However, they were not aware of the hill's potential significance for Paleolithic discoveries at the time.

"We all wanted to protect the hills, but we didn't know how. We appealed from one department to another," said Wang Yuanhe, former head of Yanqian.

The villagers, represented by five retired middle school teachers, handed a petition to the local government and searched the caves for ceramic artifacts from the Song era to illustrate the site's importance.

Despite their efforts, local decisionmakers confirmed the expansion of the quarries.

Previously, there hadn't been any known findings in Fujian related to the Paleolithic age, while the first discoveries indicating prehistoric human settlements in the province were made in the 1980s.

In 1989, five human teeth, dating back about 11,000 years, were unearthed in a cave in Sanming, triggering interest in further research.

Reporters are shown around the museum in May. (JIANG KEHONG / XINHUA)

Excavations

Researchers launched a series of digs in the 1990s in the 100 or so Karst caves in Sanming, including those on Wanshouyan Hill. While they found many fossilized mammalian teeth on the hill, it was too early to say they confirmed long-term human settlement.

Zhu Kai, deputy director of the Sanming Conservation Center for Cultural Heritage, said the city government required Sanming Steel Group to provide 80,000 yuan and sponsor archaeological digs in the hills, but the agreement was only valid for a month.

"If, at the end of the day, there were no significant archaeological discoveries, the company would be allowed to continue expanding its quarrying business," Zhu said.

"The potential economic setback became the biggest concern. If the quarries were shut down, it would lead to a huge financial loss."

On Sept 20, 1999, local archaeologists started a race against time to search for key discoveries. Later, the country's top anthropologists and archaeologists arrived from Beijing to join the excavations.

A 120-square-meter, limestone-block man-made floor in Chuanfan Cave was identified as dating back 40,000 years. Such an artifact had never been seen in China before, and they are still rare worldwide, according to Zhu.

"The major discovery, together with some mammal fossils and more than 70 stone tools, proved to be prehistoric relics, and the archaeological significance of Wanshouyan Hill became obvious," he said.

You Yuzhu, an anthropologist with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said the floor could be the "earliest known interior decoration created by human beings".

Scholars also believe that studies of Wanshouyan could provide research connections between early human settlements in Fujian and Taiwan, as similar artifacts from 5,000 years ago had been found in Taitung, a city on the other side of the Straits, in 1986.

However, the standoff continued after the monthlong agreement. The question was whether to protect the entire area or just the caves containing the landmark findings, according to Zhu.

"At a time when economic growth was the first priority and the steel company could contribute a large part of the province's GDP growth, you can imagine how difficult it was to protect the entire heritage area," he said.

A stone tablet directs visitors to the museum. (JIANG KEHONG / XINHUA)

Xi's instructions

Wanshouyan faced a gloomy outlook until Xi's instructions arrived.

On New Year's Day, 2000, he issued an order to protect the Wanshouyan heritage site, saying it held the first key Paleolithic findings in Fujian and was home to crucial prehistoric heritage items.

"It is a must to carefully protect the site," Xi wrote, stressing that safeguarding the artifacts was everyone's responsibility and also an important element in the implementation of the nation's sustainable development strategy.

The cave site, with its precious, irreplaceable cultural relics, not only belonged to the people of that generation, but also to future generations, and no entities or individuals should harm the interests of future generations merely for the sake of immediate interests, he added.

On Xi's instructions, mining activities were halted straightaway and local authorities were urged to take immediate action to strengthen protection of the cave complex.

On Jan 25, 2000, Xi issued another instruction, this time asking the provincial cultural department to draft a specific plan to protect the site.

All mining work in the Wanshouyan area was halted and the Sanming government took steps to help the steel company solve the problem of limestone supplies and find new locations for quarries.

Zhu said Xi's instructions effectively protected Wanshouyan's heritage.

"He was so visionary and courageous to make the decision to protect this heritage instead of only pursuing economic interests," Zhu said.

Since becoming general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee in 2012, Xi has often underlined the importance of preserving historical and cultural relics. When conducting inspection tours nationwide, he has often made stops at cultural heritage sites.

Rejuvenation

During an inspection tour in Gansu province last year, Xi made his first stop at Dunhuang, home to the Mogao Grottoes, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, as he highlighted the importance of the fine traditional culture in the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.

In an article published in Qiushi Journal, the flagship magazine of the CPC Central Committee, on Dec 1, Xi noted that the great spirit of the Chinese nation and fine traditional culture are sources of inner strength to realize national rejuvenation and should be carried forward in the light of new realities.

Saying the nation's strong confidence in its path, theory and system is based on confidence in its culture formed over 5,000 years, Xi called for greater importance to be attached to archaeological work so it can provide support for continuing the fine traditional Chinese culture and strengthening cultural confidence.

Experts said the protection of Wanshouyan's heritage reflected Xi's governance philosophy in terms of the history and culture that are sources of China's soft power.

As the relics emerged, scholars nationwide began to visit Wanshouyan, which in 2000 was listed as one of China's top 10 archaeological discoveries.

Within a year, it was rated by different levels of government, from city to national level, as a cultural heritage site under key protection.

New findings have been made in the past 20 years. More than 800 stone artifacts and tools have been found during archaeological digs, with the most recent discovery dating from 10,000 to 30,000 years ago.

Improvements

To further improve the area's natural environment, many factories nearby were closed in 2012, and the routes of some roads used for cargo transportation were changed.

In 2016, some 3 million yuan was spent to clear away the slag left by the former steel manufacturer.

The industry also has its own legacy. Last year, an old factory building reopened as a tourist center after renovation work and a hiking trail was created around the site.

More such locations will be turned into tourist attractions featuring eco-friendly agriculture and local folk culture, according to the city government.

Yanqian's villagers are also benefiting from tourism, as more than 80,000 people have visited an archaeological park that opened in June last year.

"With tourists coming to Wanshouyan, the archaeological discoveries have become known to more and more people," said villager Deng Jigen. "Our wallets are getting fatter, too."

Contact the writers at qinjize@chinadaily.com.cn