Chinese Name:帽天山动物化石群

Key Words:World Natural Heritage

Location:Chengjiang Fossil Site, 20 kilometers long, 4.5 kilometers wide, and 50 meters deep, is situated on Mt. Maotian, Chengjiang County, Yuxi, Yunnan.

Overview:

Chengjiang Fossil Site is one of the best-preserved sites of Cambrian fauna. It presents the appearance of marine organisms 541 million years ago, and provides precious evidence for unveiling the mystery of early evolution.The fossils site looks like a bent belt, measuring 12.4 miles (20 kilometers) long, 2.8 miles (4.5 kilometers) wide and more than 55 yards (50 meters) deep.

Highlights

The museum displays the anatomies of hard and soft tissues of various organisms, invertebrate and vertebrate, and it boasts the best-preserved ancient fossils of its kind in the world. More remarkably, the major remote ancestors of today's animals are found in Chengjiang Fossil Site, and some fossil species are found nowhere else in the world, which is of great benefit to research on the bio-physiological structures and ecological environment during the Cambrian Period.

As a “fossil treasure house” of China, Chengjiang Fossil Site features over 120 fossil species, including sponges, coelenterates, nematomorphs, priapulans, kinorhynches, branchiopods, arthropods and chordates, and a variety of enigmatic groups and algae are also displayed.

The discovery of Chengjiang Fossil Site enables us to see the original appearances of the oldest creatures on the earth, from which we know the earth has been swarming with various creatures since the Cambrian Period. It's among the most important discoveries of the 21st century.

Tours including Maotianshan Fauna Fossil Site

2Days Fuxian Lake Holiday Tour

Attractions Nearby

Fuxianhu Lake Holliday Resort

At a place of 5 Km from Chenjiang County, 63 km away from Kunming, there is the second deepest lake ¡n Fuxianhu Lake in China. It has the water area of 212 square kilometers, lake banks length around 90 kilometers, average depth of the lake about 87 meters, the deepest to 155 meters, the volume of water reaching to 18.5 billion cubic meters. It riches in the Kanlan Fish (anti-wave fish) well known for its soft and gentle meat.

Isolated Island

A few hundred meters off of the southwest shore of Fuxian Lake, Solitude Hill is an island made by the peak of a mountain that rises precipitously from the bottom of the lake, which with a maximum depth of nearly 160 meters (525 feet) is one of the deepest in Asia.

The Ancient Guansuo Opera in Chengjiang County，Yuxi

It is a clan of the ancient Nuo Plays, spreading in the Yangzong Area of Chengjiang County. So that named for the main character of Hua Guangsuo, showing the heroic achievements of Zhu, which is one of the Three Kingdoms. It’s usually put on during the Spring Festival, entertaining gods and offering sacrifices to the sky for longevity and harvests.