The Qujialing site in Jingshan county, within the Jingmen prefecture, is the type-site for the Qujialing culture — a Neolithic agricultural society that flourished in the middle Yangtze valley roughly 5,000 to 4,600 years ago. The site represents one of the important early nodes of rice farming civilization in central China, predating the major Bronze Age cultures by more than a millennium. Excavations have yielded painted pottery, jade artifacts, and a settlement layout that indicates a complex, organized community.
The site museum provides context for the finds and explains how the Qujialing culture fits into the broader story of the Yangtze valley civilizations. For visitors with an interest in Chinese prehistory, this is a genuine primary source rather than a reconstruction — the actual excavated layers are accessible in some areas, and the finds here have changed academic understanding of the origins of rice cultivation as a civilizational foundation. The site is about 50 kilometres from Jingmen city centre and is easily visited by car.