On February 17, the General Office of the National Cultural Heritage Administration, the General Office of the Ministry of Natural Resources, and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs released a circular on strengthening conservation planning and land use guarantees of large archaeological sites. A list of the first batch of 36 national large archaeological sites was announced. The Chengtoushan Ruins Site was included in the list, making it the only one selected from Hunan.

The circular stressed the need to advance the formulation of conservation plans for all cultural relics, ensure effective coordination between conservation plans and territorial spatial planning, balance cultural relic protection with agricultural and rural development, and strengthen land use guarantees.

Photo source: Voice of Hunan

With a history of more than 6,000 years, the Chengtoushan Ruins Site is known as the earliest city ever discovered in China to date. Since its discovery in 1979, the site has undergone multiple archaeological excavations, revealing an area of nearly 9,000 square meters and unearthing over 16,000 cultural relics. As China's earliest city, Chengtoushan marks the origin of Chinese civilization. The earliest paddy rice fields discovered in the site provide evidence of the maturity of rice cultivation in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River. The site's cultural deposition, which spans 2,000 years, is a testament to the origins and development of prehistoric civilization in this region. The site is hailed as the "Ancestor of Chinese Cities and the Cradle of Rice Cultivation in the World."

The achievements of excavations have been inscribed on the Bronze Corridor of the China Millennium Monument in Beijing and included in the history textbooks of universities and middle schools.

The Chengtoushan National Archaeological Site Park was established and opened to the public in 2015. It is an important historical and cultural park authorized by the National Cultural Heritage Administration. The park covers a planned area of 3.5 square kilometers and serves three main functions: site protection, cultural display, and tourism and leisure.