Category Archives: CHINA

Giant Headless Buddha Statue found Beneath Chinese Apartments

Giant Headless Buddha Statue found Beneath Chinese Apartments

In the old neighborhood of Chongqing, southwest China, people had passed by two residential buildings constructed upon a steep hill, indifferent to what lay underneath. It turns out that these two apartment buildings that sit upon the cliff face had been carved by Lord buddha.

The massive statue — about 30-feet tall and with its head missing — was hidden by a dense coating of foliage, and only exposed during recent repairs to the residential building, according to the local Nan’an district government.

Photos of the enigmatic headless sculpture have gone viral on Chinese social media since the accidental discovery, where many have referred to it as “the Buddha,” attracting headlines and stirring instant curiosity in its history and origins.

The seated Buddha sculpture uncovered in Chongqing is missing its head.

Now only partially covered in moss, the statue is depicted seated with its forearms resting on its lap and its hands holding what appears to be a round stone. The folds and some details of the figure’s clothes are also visible.

The statue is believed to have been built during China’s Republican era (1912-1949), according to a national survey of cultural relics.

While that study was conducted just over a decade ago, the sculpture had been neglected and appears to have been completely forgotten until recently.

Its head was likely destroyed during the 1950s, and the apartment buildings around it were built in the 1980s, said the district government on China’s Twitter-like platform, Weibo.

The ‘Buddha’ statue (location identified with the red square) used to be covered by dense foliage. ( Weibo)

However, experts invited by the district’s cultural relics management office to study the statue said it was not of Buddhist origin and is likely related to folk religion.

A temple dedicated to the Daoist god of thunder was once built next to the statue, though it was dismantled in 1987, the district government told state-run media outlet The Paper.

The religious statue was already designated as a district-level cultural relic before 1997, it added.

That the statue could be so quickly hidden is perhaps, a reflection of the rapid urban expansion that has unfolded in Chongqing.

In recent decades, countless structures have been built to accommodate a bustling population of over 30 million people, sometimes at the expense of historical and cultural relics. Because of the city’s mountainous terrain, many homes are built on hillsides.

Incredible Footage as Giant Spinning ice disk is formed on a River in China

Incredible Footage as Giant Spinning ice disk is formed on a River in China

Residents in a northern Chinese city have flocked to see a giant ice disc rotating on a river, a rare natural phenomenon that occurs in cold climates.

Incredible footage shows the ice circle, measuring about 33 feet (10 metres) wide, spinning on the surface of the Taoer River in Inner Mongolia’s Ulanhot, a city with an average winter temperature of minus six degrees Celsius (21 degrees Fahrenheit).

The captivating rarity, usually formed on the outer bends in a river, is created by accelerating water that breaks off a chunk of ice and smooths it into a circle.

Residents in the city of Ulanhot, northern China’s Inner Mongolia have flocked to see a giant ice disc rotating on a river, a rare natural phenomenon that occurs in cold climates

Footage filmed Wednesday by local newspaper Xing’an Daily shows the naturally-formed ice disc, with a reported diameter of 10 metres (33 feet), appearing to spin on its own in an anticlockwise direction.

The unusual sight has drawn local residents to the banks of the Taoer River running through the city of Ulanhot, where the temperatures in winter range between minus eight degrees Celsius (17.6 degrees Fahrenheit) to two degrees Celsius (35.6 degrees Fahrenheit).

‘It’s amazing,’ a resident told Chinese video news outlet Pear. ‘It’s the magnificent work crafted by nature, really captivating.’

Reporters can be seen in a picture standing at the centre of the ice disc as they hosted a live-streaming to promote local products.

Ice discs come into being due to the fact that warm water is less dense than cold water, therefore when the ice melts and sinks, the motion creates a vortex underneath the chunk, causing it to turn, according to National Geographic, citing a 2016 study.  

Ice discs (pictured in Ulanhot, northern China on December 4) come into being due to the fact that warm water is less dense than cold water, therefore when ice melts and sinks, the motion creates a vortex underneath the chunk, causing it to turn, according to National Geographic
The unusual sight has drawn local residents to the banks of the Taoer River running through the city of Ulanhot in Inner Mongolia region. Reporters can be seen in a picture standing at the centre of the ice disc as they hosted a live-streaming to promote local products
The unusual sight has drawn local residents to the banks of the Taoer River (pictured) running through the city of Ulanhot, where the temperatures in winter range between minus eight degrees Celsius (17.6 degrees Fahrenheit) to two degrees Celsius (35.6 degrees Fahrenheit)

The ‘whirlpool effect’ slowly erodes the plate of ice until its edges are smooth and its overall shape is perfectly round.

Ice discs even rotate in water that is not moving, because the ice lowers the temperature of the surrounding water, making it denser and causing it to sink, creating a circular motion. 

One of the most famous ice discs in recent times was sighted early last year in Presumpscot River in downtown Westbrook, Maine.

The spectacle was said to be about 300 feet in diameter and likely the largest spinning ice disc on record.  

Last month, the natural rarity was spotted in Inner Mongolia’s Genhe, a city dubbed ‘China’s pole of cold’.

The ice disc was seen on the Genhe River, which has an average temperature of minus 5.3 degrees Celsius, and is frozen over more than 200 days per year.

The miniature Sculpture of a bird was Carved 13,500 years ago

The miniature Sculpture of a bird was Carved 13,500 years ago

A miniature bird statue carved out of burnt bone has been unearthed by archaeologists in Lingjing, China. At over 13,000 years it is believed to be the oldest East Asian work of art ever found.

Humans have been creating sculptures since the Upper Paleolithic period (50,000 to 12,000 years ago), the earliest being a lion-headed human carved from mammoth tusk found in German caves, dating back 35,000-40,000 years.

This bird figurine shows that sculpture was emerging independently in East Asia during the same period.

Discovered by a team of archaeologists led by Prof Francesco d’Errico at the University of Bordeaux, France, the 2cm-long bird is incredibly well-preserved, with a short neck, rounded bill and long tail, and a pedestal so that it can stand up.

The sculpture is thought to represent a ‘passerine’ – a diverse group of birds that includes the sparrows, finches and thrushes.

Photo (top) and 3D reconstruction using microtomography (bottom) of the miniature bird sculpture.

The researchers analysed the bird using microscopy and X-ray scanning, determining that it was carved from a mammal limb bone that had been blackened by heating.

They also painstakingly reconstructed the sculpting process: the bird was created using four different techniques – gouging, abrading, scraping, and incising.

“Our analysis reveals that the Lingjing artist has chosen the appropriate techniques and applied them skillfully to faithfully reproduce the distinct anatomical features of a passerine,” they write.

“The style of this diminutive representation is original and remarkably different from all other known Paleolithic avian figurines.”

The researchers estimate the figurine to be 13,500 years old – more than 8,500 years older than other animal sculptures found in East Asia.

Mysterious 520 million-year-old sea monster with tentacles coming out of its mouth discovered

Mysterious 520 million-year-old sea monster with tentacles coming out of its mouth discovered

A recent research finds that the discovery of a fossil demonstrating an underwater marine monster with 18 tentacles surrounding its mouth has helped solve a modern-day puzzle about the origins of a gelatinous carnivore called a comb jelly.

The once unexplained “sea monster,” which scientists named Daihua sanqiong, existed in today’s China a whopping 518 million years ago. And the extinct animal shares a number of anatomical characteristics with the modern comb jelly, a little sea creature that uses so-called comb rows full of loads of hair-like cilia to swim through the oceans.

The finding indicates that this recently identified species may be the distant relative of the comb jelly, said study lead researcher Jakob Vinther, a paleobiologist at the United Kingdom’s Bristol University.

“With fossils, we have been able to find out what the bizarre comb jellies originated from,” Vinther told Live Science. “Even though we now can show they came from a very sensible place, it doesn’t make them any less weird.”

This finding, however, has sparked a debate. While the discovery of D. sanqiong is impressive, it’s hard to say whether this ancient creature is part of the lineage that produced comb jellies, said Casey Dunn, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at Yale University, who was not involved with the study.

“I am highly skeptical of the conclusions they draw,” Dunn told Live Science.

A magnified shot of the rows of cilia on Daihua sanqiong, which suggest that it might be a distant relative of the modern comb jelly.

18 incredible tentacles

Vinther came across the D. sanqiong fossil while visiting colleagues at Yunnan University in China.

The scientists there showed him a number of fossils in their collection, including the mysterious creature they later named Daihua sanqiong, which was discovered by study co-researcher Xianguang Hou, a paleobiologist at Yunnan University. The genus name honors the Dai tribe in Yunnan; “hua” means flower in Mandarin, and refers to the critter’s flower-like shape.

On each of D. sanqiong’s tentacles are fine, feather-like branches with rows of large ciliary hairs, which likely helped it catch prey. These hairs, according to Vinther, grabbed his attention “because we only find big cilia on comb jellies.” To swim, comb jellies move their cilia, which then flicker in beautiful iridescent colors.

A living comb jelly, known as Euplokamis. The creature’s rainbow iridescence is caused by the movement of the ciliary comb bands on the animal’s body.

Moreover, the D. sanqiong fossil bears an intriguing resemblance to other known ancient animals, including Xianguangia, another ancient creature with 18 tentacles, and the tulip-like sea creatures Dinomischus and Siphusauctum.

“To make a long story short, we were able to reconstruct the whole [early] lineage of comb jellies,” by doing anatomical comparisons, Vinther said. This is a big deal, because some scientists argue that these swimming carnivores were among the first animals to evolve on Earth, based on family trees analyses and genetic modeling of modern comb jellies. But now, this international team has possibly shown that comb jellies have a long lineage that precedes them, Vinther said.

This newly described lineage suggests that some of the ancestors of comb jellies had skeletons and that their ancient tentacles evolved into the combs with the densely packed cilia seen on comb jellies today.

An artist’s illustration of Daihua sanqiong

The discovery also sheds light on where these ancient animals likely sat on the tree of life. For instance, researchers previously thought that Xianguangia was a sea anemone, but it “is actually part of the comb jelly branch,” study co-researcher Peiyun Cong , a professor of paleobiology at Yunnan University, said in a statement.

These findings also make a strong case that comb jellies are related to corals, sea anemones and jellyfish, the researchers said. “Those [ancient] tentacles are the same tentacles that you see on corals and sea anemones,” Vinther said. “We can trace comb jellies to these flower-like animals that lived more than half a billion years ago.”

But not everyone agrees with this analysis. While Dunn commended the researchers for their detailed description of D. sanqiong and its proposed relatives, some of these creatures have such different body shapes that it’s challenging to see how they could be related, he said. It’s possible that the tulip-looking Dinomischus and Siphusayctum creatures are related to each other.

But Siphusauctum has ciliary rows on the inside of its body, and the animal purported to come after it, Galeactena, has these rows on the outside of its body.

It’s hard to see how this animal would, in effect, turn inside out as it evolved, Dunn said. Given that some of these claims are tenuous, the burden of proof is higher, and the researchers don’t quite get there, Dunn said.

“These are exciting animals no matter how they’re related to each other,” Dunn said. “Even though I’m skeptical that tentacles and comb rows are homologous [evolutionarily related], I think that as we describe more diversity from these deposits, certainly we’re going to learn a lot more about animal evolution.”

How midnight digs at a holy Tibetan cave opened a window to prehistoric humans living on the roof of the world

How midnight digs at a holy Tibetan cave opened a window to prehistoric humans living on the roof of the world

New DNA data has confirmed that a Himalayan cave high on the Tibetan Plateau once hosted representatives of the enigmatic species of extinct human beings known as Denisovans, research recently published in the journal Science has revealed.

The scientists, led by the Lanzhou University of China and backed up by archaeologists, geologists and geneticists from Australia, Germany and the U.S., said that new DNA and archaeological evidence demonstrated the long-term presence of humans at high altitude some 120,000 years earlier than previously understood—modern humans were not thought to have inhabited the Tibetan Plateau until some 40,000 years ago.

The find confirms that the first modern hominins to inhabit the area were not Neanderthals, as was previously assumed, instead of showing that Denisovan populations are more likely to have been widespread and not limited to Siberia, where the only previously known fossil fragments were discovered in 2010.

“We detected ancient human fragments that matched mitochondrial DNA associated with Denisovans in four different layers of sediment deposited around 100,000 and 60,000 years ago,” said Associate Professor Bo Li of the University of Wollongong, the team’s dating specialist and co-author of the new research.

“We have known that some modern human genomes contain fragments of DNA from Denisovans, suggesting that this species of human must have been widespread in Asia,”

The origins of this discovery took place 40 years ago in 1980, when a segment of the fossilized jawbone, complete with two molars, was discovered by a Buddhist monk in Baishiya Karst Cave in the northeast of the Tibetan Plateau, in what is now Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in the south of China’s Gansu Province.

For Tibetan Buddhist monks, Baishiya Karst Cave is a sacred site and a protected religious sanctuary, sitting at an elevation of 3,280 meters in Xiahe County. The Tibetan monk who made the prehistoric discovery presented the relic to his teacher, the Sixth Gung-Thang Living Buddha, who recognized its potential significance and passed the fossil on to Lanzhou University.

This jawbone fragment represents the only known remains of the mysterious Xiahe Man

Two decades later in 2019, scientists analyzing the fragment reported that the fossilized jawbone belonged to a 160,000-year-old Denisovan, positing that the little-known species of Neanderthal-like hominins inhabited the region thousands of years before modern humans.

“Our painstaking efforts . . . are helping unravel the story of how early humans adapted to live in one of the world’s most remote and mountainous places,” members of the research team said in an article for non-profit website The Conversation. “Our research . . . provides a better understanding of the little-known prehistoric humans who lived tens of thousands of years ago on the roof of the world.”

The Denisovan proposal was initially disputed by other scientists due to a lack of genetic evidence and the prevailing understanding of Denisovan population distributions at the time: this group of mysterious prehistoric humans was originally discovered in Denisova Cave in Siberia.

Researchers excavate a section of the Buddhist cave.

“This [Baishiya Karst Cave ] fossil was not only the earliest evidence of human occupation on the Tibetan Plateau but also the first Denisovan fossil to be found outside of Denisova Cave—and the largest to ever be found,” said the research team.

The ancestral lineage of Denisovans separated from the ancestors of modern humans some 500,000 years ago, although scientists disagree over whether they should be regarded as a distinct species or a subspecies of Homo sapiens.

Whether due to being overcome by populations of modern humans or environmental factors, Denisovans and Neanderthals are both believed to have died out some 40,000–50,000 years ago, although they are known to have interbred with the ancestors of modern humans.

“When our species exited Africa, on the way to moving to Australia, we met Denisovans somewhere in Asia, interbred with them, and carry some of the genetic information,” said Prof. Li. “Modern Tibetans, for example, have a Denisovan gene that lets them thrive at high altitude.”

As well as human remains, the research team at Baishiya Karst Cave also unearthed a wealth of other revealing artefacts, including a large quantity of charcoal, indicating that that the Denisovans used fire, 1,310 rudimentary tools dated to more than 190,000 years ago and as recently as 45,000 years ago, and numerous animal bones, including some from hyenas and rhinos, both of which once were once native to the region.

“After dozens of visits to the cave and others nearby, in 2016 we finally found the first indisputable stone artefacts [probably made by Denisovans] on the cave floor,” the research team explained. “With this, we became further convinced the cave was a treasure trove of archaeological deposits that could help tell the story of the Denisovans. But, as it’s also a Buddhist holy cave, we weren’t allowed to dig inside it—not even one scrape of a trowel.”

After two years of negotiations with the Chinese authorities and the Tibetan monks maintaining the cave, the team were granted permission to excavate within a limited area inside the sacred cave—contingent on the condition that they only work late at night during the Himalayan winter, when no Buddhist monks were using the cave.

Researchers sampling the Baishiya Karst Cave.

Prof. Li observed that here is still much more research to be done at the site: “Our next target is to date more samples from the cave and tries to answer when Denisovans started to occupy the cave and when they ‘disappear’ from the cave.”

A 520-Million-Year-Old Five-Eyed Fossil Reveals Arthropod Origin

A 520-Million-Year-Old Five-Eyed Fossil Reveals Arthropod Origin

Since the Cambrian Period, around 520 million years ago, arthropods have been among the most prolific animals on Earth. They are the most familiar and ubiquitous, and constitute nearly 80 per cent of all animal species today, far more than any other animals.

Ecological reconstruction of Kylinxia zhangi.

So how did arthropods evolve and what did they look like to their ancestors? This has been a major conundrum in animal evolution puzzling generations of scientists for more than a century.

A shrimp-like fossil with five eyes has now been found by researchers from the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (NIGPAS), giving valuable insights into the early evolutionary  history of arthropods. The study was published in Nature on November 4, 2020.

Anatomical reconstruction of Kylinxia.

The fossil species, Kylinxia, was collected from the Chengjiang fauna in southwest China’s Yunnan Province. The fauna documents the most complete early animal fossils in the Cambrian time.

Prof. HUANG Diying, the corresponding author for the study from NIGPAS, said, “Kylinxia is a very rare chimeric species. It combines morphological features from different animals, which is analogous to ‘kylin,’ a chimeric creature in traditional Chinese mythology.”

“Owing to very special taphonomic conditions, the Kylinxia fossils exhibit exquisite anatomical structures. For example, nervous tissue, eyes and digestive system — these are soft body parts we usually cannot see in conventional fossils,” said Prof. ZHAO Fangchen, co-corresponding author of the study.

Kylinxia shows distinctive features of true arthropods, such as a hardened cuticle, a segmented trunk and jointed legs.

However, it also integrates the morphological characteristics present in very ancestral forms, including the bizarre five eyes of Opabinia, known as the Cambrian “weird wonder,” as well as the iconic raptorial appendages of Anomalocaris, the giant apex predator in the Cambrian ocean.

A 520-Million-Year-Old Five-Eyed Fossil Reveals Arthropod Origin
Holotype of Kylinxia zhangi.

Among the Chengjiang fauna, Anomalocaris is a top predator that can reach two meters in body length and has been regarded as an ancestral form of arthropod.

But huge morphological differences exist between Anomalocaris and true arthropods. There is a great evolutionary gap between the two that can hardly be bridged. This gap has become a crucial “missing link” in the origin of arthropods.

The research team conducted detailed anatomical examinations of the fossils of Kylinxia. They demonstrated that the first appendages in Anomalocaris and true arthropods were homologous.

The phylogenetic analyses suggested that there was an affinity between the front appendages of Kylinxia, small predatory appendages in front of the mouth of Chelicerata (a group that includes spiders and scorpions) and the antennae of Mandibulata (a subdivision of arthropods including insects such as ants and bees).

“Our results indicate that the evolutionary placement of Kylinxia is right between Anomalocaris and the true arthropods. Therefore, our finding reached the evolutionary root of the true arthropods,” said Prof. ZHU Maoyan, a co-author of the study.

“Kylinxia represents a crucial transitional fossil predicted by Darwin’s evolutionary theory. It bridges the evolutionary gap from Anomalocaris to true arthropods and forms a key “missing link” in the origin of arthropods, contributing strong fossil evidence for the evolutionary theory of life,” said Dr. ZENG Han, first author of the study.

Leshan Giant Buddha -largest carved stone Buddha in the world

Leshan Giant Buddha -largest carved stone Buddha in the world

The Leshan Giant Buddha is a huge statue carved into the side of Lingyun Mountain. Taller by 17 meters than the standing Buddha in Afghanistan, the Leshan Giant Buddha is the tallest and largest Buddha in the world.

Leshan Giant Buddha

There is a local saying: “The mountain is a Buddha and the Buddha is a mountain”. It was included by UNESCO on the list of World Heritage sites.

The Size of the Giant Buddha

The head is 14.7 meters long and 10 meters wide.

The head is 14.7 meters long and 10 meters wide.

The statue depicts a seated Maitreya Buddha with his hands resting on his knees and a smile on his face. The Leshan Giant Buddha is about 71 meters high and 24 meters wide. The head is 14.7 meters long and 10 meters wide with 1,021 buns of hair on it.

His smallest toenail can accommodate a seated person. Each ear is 7 meters long and his nose is 5.6 meters long. Each eyebrow is 5.5 meters long.

The instep, which is 8.5 meters wide, can accommodate 100 people. The toe is large enough to accommodate a dining table.

Giant Sleeping Buddha

Behind the Leshan Giant Buddha, a sleeping Buddha with a body length of more than 4,000 meters “floats” peacefully on the water.

The head, body, and foot of the Buddha are composed of Wuyou Mountain, Lingyun Mountain, and Guicheng Mountain. The best way to observe the sleeping Buddha is taking a trip on a sightseeing boat.

Nine Bends Plank Road

It is a steep plank road with nine turns on the right side of the Leshan Giant Buddha. You can walk along the road from the Buddha’s head to its foot.

The widest part of the road is 1.45 meters and the narrowest part is only 0.6 meter, and there are 217 stone steps in total.

Oriental Buddha Park

It is a Buddhist theme park integrating sculptures, religion, and garden art. The park contains more than 3,000 Buddhist statues, including a 170-meter-long reclining Buddha, which is the largest in the world.

Lingyun Temple

Located next to the Leshan Giant Buddha, Lingyun Temple has a history of over 1,400 years.

Lingyun Temple

It is a quadrangle courtyard composed of the Tianwang Hall, the Daxiong Hall, and Depository of Buddhist Sutras. You can get to the Buddha’s head by crossing through Lingyun Temple.

Construction History

In ancient times, Leshan was at the confluence of the Min River, the Qingyi River, and the Dadu River. The tempestuous waters caused numerous boat accidents and caused people to suffer who earned their living around the area.

A monk called Hai Tong thought that the spirit of the Buddha could suppress the tempestuous waters so he initiated its construction. The project was half done when Hai Tong passed away and two of his disciples continued the work. After a total of 90 years’ hard work, the project was finally completed.

Special Drainage System

The Leshan Giant Buddha has a special drainage system so that it can be well-preserved. Several drainage passages are hidden in the Buddha’s hair, collar, chest, and holes in the back of his ears and chest, preventing the statue from serious erosion and weathering.

The Buddha has been lovingly maintained on a regular basis throughout his 1,200-year history. Moss, however, does grow on the statue.

Local Farmers found 2,000 years old carved caves while pumping water out of five small pools

Local Farmers found 2,000 years old carved caves while pumping water out of five small pools

The caves are one of the largest structures ever excavated by human hands. First discovered in 1992, 24 caves have been found to date, one of which has been developed as a tourist attraction.

Interestingly, to date, not a single historical record has been found that details or explains the monumental construction process that involved the removal of more than 1,000,000 cubic meters of rock.

These caves have become a mystery to many people trying to figure out how builders in the past were able to carve out these gigantic caverns and leave such unique tool marks on the surface of its walls.

The caves were discovered by local “farmers who were pumping water out of five small pools on a rough-flat ground in 1992.”

The mysterious tool marks found in the Longyou Caves have baffled scientists since their discovery. Scientists from around the world wonder how the caves have been able to keep their structural integrity for such a long time. And then there is the question of those tool marks.

The Lonyou Caves mystery

Longyou Caves, China. Notice the high-tech looking tool marks on walls and ceilings.

What really makes these caves so mysterious and what is so special about their tool marks?

Modern-day high-tech machines dig away stone and grind down the walls and ceilings in mines and quarries.

But when we discover the same types of tool marks in caves that date back far beyond the time of any formally recorded technology capable of even remotely producing any similar marks on stone surfaces, most of us can’t help but scratch our heads.

How did people in remote history manage to carve out these caverns leaving tool marks that only find their likeness in modern mining operations?

The elephant in the room

Mainstream academia generally believes that people in the remote past were mostly simple dwellers and technologically primitive compared to people today. According to academia, the evolution of technology went from primitive (in the past) to more advanced (today).

If what the tool marks in the caves suggest is confirmed, then the aforementioned assumption would be turned on its head.

While this hypothesis is an accepted theory in the field of academics, sites like the Lonyou Grotto in China put mainstream theories about what ancient people were capable of under scrutiny.

Longyou Caves and history

According to historians, the caves were created in the Qin Dynasty, 212 BCE; however, there is no historical record of their construction. The caves were first discovered in 1992. So far, 24 caverns have been discovered, one of which has been transformed into a tourist attraction.

Mainstream historians believe that the Lingyou Caves were carved out of the massive stone by hand. Each cave has a volume of several thousand cubic meters. Apparently, the ancient builders did it all by hand, with hammers and chisels.

But they didn’t chisel any simple way. The builders apparently chiseled the walls and ceilings in a way that left a uniform pattern.

A different paradigm

When deriving conclusions within a framework of fixed notions and the chronology of events, it is difficult to ascribe perfectly aligned tool marks to the crude hammer and chisel work done by people of ancient times.

While it seems plausible to people who just consume information and do not critically think about what is said, those who do some research will find it hard to reason the facts surrounding the Longyou Caves using mainstream explanations.

To truly understand and properly analyze the caves and similar structures, you will need to be able to literally “think outside of the box.” You must be ready to constantly change your previous notions and reconsider prevailing hypotheses and theories in the light of new facts and artefacts surfacing.

It is, however, understandably difficult for any academic to throw away theories that they spent almost a decade studying and on which they have based their entire academic careers.

Tool marks in Longyou caves resembles those left by modern machines.
Tool markings on the walls of one of the Lonyou Caves.