Weeds choke the excavation site. Only one sign tells the rare visitor what he's looking at. A bust of Peking Man at Peking Man Park. Fourteen years after it was proclaimed a U.N. World Heritage Site, the park isn't on most tours. Fourteen years after it was proclaimed a U.N. World Heritage Site, the park isn't on most tours.
Visitors shun it because it has so little to offer.
The situation here has become a vicious circle. Visitor numbers have dwindled since 1986, when 160,000 saw the site. Last year, only a quarter that many came. Money is so tight that the center has paid its 13 employees only two-thirds of their monthly wages for the last eight years, Zhang said. Help may be on the way from Beijing's city government, which last month offered an unspecified sum for improvements if curators put together a renovation plan by May 30.