Nanjing Ape Man Cave

the Nanjing Man fossil site

MuseumDay Trips: Niushou Mountain, Qixia Mountain and Tangshan

NANJING APE MAN CAVE (THE NANJING MAN FOSSIL SITE) · NANJING GU YUANREN DONG

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Day Trips: Niushou Mountain, Qixia Mountain and Tangshan · 32.058°N 119.040°E

TicketedClosure day

A limestone cave in Leigong Hill at Tangshan where quarrymen broke through in March 1990, and where in March 1993 a labourer digging there turned up a human skull. The municipal museum authority's record: the Hulu (Gourd) Cave is a single hall-like chamber about 64 m long and 25 m wide on average, with a small side chamber below the south side of its middle section, where the skulls were found. The excavation ran 38 working days from 10 December 1993 to 16 January 1994, led by Lu Zun'e for the Nanjing Museum and Peking University, and produced two skulls and one tooth of Homo erectus from about 350,000 years ago plus 1,325 animal fossil specimens.

Before you goGet the age right, because almost everything written about this place gets it wrong. Platform listings and a 2014 news report say the skulls are 580,000 to 620,000 years old. The municipal museum authority's own archaeological record says about 350,000 years, middle Middle Pleistocene, and the Nanjing institute of geology and palaeontology dates them to 127,000-400,000 years. If you want the defensible number, it is roughly 350,000. Second, there are two separate operations here and they are not the same ticket: the cave scenic area, which is what the city's 22 yuan regulated price covers, and the Nanjing Homo Erectus Fossil Site Museum inside the Tangshan-Fangshan geopark, which platforms say closes on Mondays. Nobody official publishes hours for either, and whether they share a ticket or an operator with the Yangshan quarry down the road is not published anywhere we could find. Ring 025-52707365 before you commit a morning. Lastly, the cave is a cave: expect lighting effects on stalactites and a modest display hall, not a modern palaeoanthropology museum. Something wrong here? Tell us →

Hours · Tickets · Booking+ Add to trip

AdmissionTicketed22 yuan (the city's regulated maximum)Source ↗

Hours09:00-17:00, last entry 16:30 (platform figure)

ClosedNone for the cave; the museum closes Mondays

IDNone published for ordinary days; the free-open day requires real-name booking with an ID numberSource ↗

LandmarkNanjing Ape Man Cave (the Nanjing Man fossil site) (南京古猿人洞 · 葫芦洞，雷公山)

AddressHulu Cave, Leigong Hill, south of county road 302, Tangshan Subdistrict, Jiangning District, Nanjing (南京市江宁区汤山街道 302 县道南侧雷公山葫芦洞)Source ↗Navigate ↗

EntranceLeigong Hill sits in the western part of Tangshan, about 1 km south-west of Tangshan Subdistrict. Metro S6 (the Ningju intercity line) has a station actually called 南京猿人洞, about 1 km from the scenic area in a straight line; ticket enquiries 025-52707365

Last verified 2026-09-24 Source: platforms and press

How to book

No booking requirement published for ordinary days; the free-open day is booked by name on the scenic area's WeChat official account or mini-programSource ↗

Paying on site

Buy at the gate or on a Chinese platform on ordinary days; the annual free day is booked through the district tourism WeChat official account with a timed slot, a real-name form and a QR code

Language

No English visitor information found; the museum authority publishes its archaeological record page under an English-language URL path but the content is Chinese

How to visit

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