Workers undertake an archaeological dig at the museum site in the late 1990s. [Photo provided to China Daily]

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.