A view of the Hetao archeological site in the Uxin Banner of Ordos city, North China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region. [Photo/Inner Mongolia Daily]

The Hetao archeological site in the Uxin Banner of Ordos city, North China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region, has sent in an application to become a UNESCO cultural and natural world heritage site.

The Hetao people who lived in the lush land along the Salawusu River in the Paleolithic Age were ancient humans with a history of about 70,000 to 140,000 years. In time, they created their own civilization.

The site is among the first group of ancient human remains from the Paleolithic Age discovered in China that had reliable stratigraphic and chronological evidence.

The site has irreplaceable research value in the fields of world history, geology, paleoecology, archaeology, and paleoanthropology.

A view of the Hetao archeological site in the Uxin Banner of Ordos city, North China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region. [Photo/Inner Mongolia Daily]

So far, more than 380 kinds of human fossils and stone tools have been discovered there, along with 45 kinds of mammal and bird fossils.

Once scientific investigations began over 100 years ago, the site has grown from obscurity to being well-known.

French scholars Sang Zhihua and Teilhard discovered the site during their scientific investigation in Northwest China, from 1922 to 1923. They then began to excavate and unearthed about 200 pieces of Paleolithic tools.

This was the first time that so many ancient stone tools were discovered in China, and it was the first time that human fossils from the Paleolithic period were confirmed in East Asia, causing a sensation in international academic circles.

Stone tool fossils have been discovered at the Hetao archeological site in the Uxin Banner of Ordos city, North China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region. [Photo/Inner Mongolia Daily]