China

 DNA have been extracted from the human remains excavated from the Yixi site ( approximately 2,000 years before the present) in the Shandong peninsula of China.

• Through PCR amplification, determined nucleotide sequences of their mitochondrial D-loop regions.
• Nucleotide diversity of the ancient Yixi people was similar to those of modern populations.
• Modern humans in Asia and the circum-Pacific region are divided into six radiation groups, on the basis of the phylogenetic network constructed by means of mtDNA studies. -* The ancient Yixi people have been compared with the modern Asian and the circum-Pacific populations, using two indices: frequency distribution of the radiation groups and genetic distances among populations. Both revealed that the closest genetic relatedness is between the ancient Yixi people and the modern Taiwan Han Chinese.
• The Yixi people show closer genetic affinity with Mongolians, mainland Japanese, and Koreans than with Ainu and Ryukyu Japanese and less genetic resemblance with Jomon people and Yayoi people, their predecessors and contemporaries, respectively, in ancient Japan.

References

 Xie CZ, Li CX, Cui YQ, Zhang QC, Fu YQ, Zhu H, Zhou H. Evidence of ancient DNA reveals the first European lineage in Iron Age Central China.
Proc Biol Sci. 2007 Apr 24; PMID: 17456455

 Oota H, Saitou N, Matsushita T, Ueda S. Molecular genetic analysis of remains of a 2,000-year-old human population in China-and its relevance for the origin of the modern Japanese population. Am J Hum Genet. 1999 Jan;64(1):250-8. PMID: 9915964