Chengjiang Fossil join world heritage list

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China now has yet another UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Chengjiang Fossil Site in Yunnan Province has made the list, following hot on the heels of Inner Mongolia’s Xanadu’s inscription, which attained the honor over the weekend.

After eight years on the waiting list, Chengjiang is China’s first world heritage site for fossils. It is also the country’s 31st UNESCO Site. Chengjiang’s fossils are exceptionally well-preserved examples of a very wide variety of marine organisms from the early Cambrian period.

It’s a great testimony to the diversity of life that existed on earth 5-hundred million years ago.

Archaeologist clean a trilobite fossil at Chengjiang animal fossile museum in Chengjiang County, southwest China's Yunnan Province, July 1, 2012. The Chengjiang Fossil of China was included into the World Heritage List at the 36th World Heritage Conference held in St. Petersburg, Russia on Sunday. (Xinhua/Qin Qing)

Photo taken on June 18, 2012 shows the Chengjiang Fossile in Chengjiang County, southwest China's Yunnan Province. The Chengjiang Fossil of China was included into the World Heritage List at the 36th World Heritage Conference held in St. Petersburg, Russia on Sunday. (Xinhua/Qin Qing)