Archaeologists from the provincial cultural heritage bureau said recently that preparatory work on the geological park has been completed and construction is expected to begin within the year.

Archaeologists have excavated more than 80 Stone Age ruins, large quantities of fossils of ancient people and animals, and varied stone tools at the Nihewan Basin, located along the banks of the Sanggan River in Yangyuan County, which stretches for 82 km from east to west and 27 km from south to north.

The ruins, fossils and stone tools record almost the whole evolution process from the Paleolithic Age to the Neolithic Age, according to archaeologists.

Among the 30 ancient ruins that have been excavated in China, which date back over one million years, archaeologists noted, 25 were discovered in the Nihewan Basin.

Nihewan was a large lake encircled by forest-covered mountains and vast pastures more than two million years ago, with a water area of some than 9,000 sq km, covering almost all of Yangyuan county, a major part of Weixian county and part of the Yanbei areain neighboring Shanxi province, according to Yuan Baoyin, a noted research fellow with the Geology and Geophysics Research Instituteunder the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

The lake was turned into a vast plain as a result of crust movements tens of thousands of years ago, Yuan said.

To protect the Nihewan ruins better still, the relevant departments of Hebei province are preparing to apply for putting it on the World Cultural Heritage list.

(Xinhua News Agency April 22, 2003)