Abstract: The southwestern Chinese provinces and neighbouring upland areas in Burma, Thailand, Laos and Vietnam form a geographical region with an expanding Palaeolithic record. The area was a gateway for the dispersion of populations into East Asia and Island Southeast Asia. It is therefore important to examine the diversity of environments and resources that the earliest inhabitants encountered, and to identify adaptations and technologies that may have shaped subsequent exploitations of Asian environments. This paper synthesizes the evidence for the early human occupations of the region, beginning over one million years ago and continuing through the Upper Pleistocene.