Migration of people and exchanges among different cultures has been a focal point in Chinese archaeology, as some entries on the Top 10 list demonstrate.

At the Piluo Paleolithic site in western Sichuan, more than 6,000 unearthed relics, including abundant stone tools and other evidence of human activities from at least 130,000 years ago, can help people understand how the early migrants to the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau survived the harsh natural environment.

"This is a world-class finding," Song said. "It can offer key clues to study how early humans got used to high-altitude environments in general."