Every autumn, the rock paintings of Helan Mountain in Helan County, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, attract tourists by the busload. Few of these eager visitors know that the epic paintings were found by accident 41 years ago.

In the spring of 1969, Li Xiangshi, who was employed in Helan County, visited Helan Pass on vacation. When he came to a protruding rock in the south of the Pass, he looked carefully and saw some animals images carved onto it. Many of the creatures were recognizable, while some were depictions of monsters with long necks and thick tails. With this discovery, the rock paintings first appeared in the modern public realm.

The Earliest Record of Human Beings

Rocks are the oldest painting canvases in the world. Since antiquity, people around the globe carved and drew on rocks to record their lives and wishes. These images are our most important clue to understanding the lives of the past, before the invention of the written word.

Helan Mountain, 250 kilometers long and 15-30 kilometers wide, is one of the few north-to-south mountains in China. Rock paintings are scattered across approximately 30 passes on the eastern side, with some also to be found on the desert steppe to the front – a bounty of more than 20,000 drawings from varying periods. They record scenes of grazing, hunting, sacrificing and other common activities of a people who lived 3,000 to 10,000 years ago, and include some abstract symbols and animal images such as horses, tigers and leopards.

Among these passes, the Helan Pass is outstanding due to the quantity and quality of the paintings. Interpreting various clues, experts speculate that the pass used to be a place where prehistoric people conducted sacrificial rites. On the valley cliffs covering less than 1 square kilometer lie eight human-face rock painting groups. Different groups have different composition styles and manifestations. Experts believe they were created to worship a god by different tribes at different periods.