Prof. Huang Wanpo of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has discovered a rich and well preserved site of fossil man in a karst cave at Heliang, near Chongqing, Sichuan Province.
　　 In the summer of 1999, when Zhu Kaijun, a businessman, was developing tourism resources at Xinjian Village, in the Heliang District of Wushan County, he found a fossil of a mammal in a karst cave. Supported by the county government, Prof. Huang, together with personnel from the Institute of Paleoanthropology of Wushan at Longgupo, discovered sediments on the bed of an ancient river and a human parietal bone fossil in the cave. He also collected about 30 varieties of fossils of other mammals, and more than 40 stone articles in the upper and lower cave. At the same time, he also discovered charcoal ashes--traces of the use of fire by man.
　　 Later, the team discovered that "Heliang Man" had lived in the area of the Three Gorges 15,000 years ago. "Heliang Man" was the master of Mount Bashan, who went hunting with stone tools, and used fire to keep warm. The population was continually reproduced and developed. The researchers presume that the study of the Ba culture of the Bashu culture, or the Chongqing culture, should start with "Heliang Man" and "Heliang culture."