Peking man is characterized by a cranial capacity averaging about 1,000 cubic cm, though some individual skull capacities approached 1,300 cubic cm—nearly the size of modern man's. Peking man had a skull that was flat in profile, with a small forehead, a keel along the top of the head for attachment of powerful jaw muscles, very thick skull bones, heavy browridges, an occipital torus, a large palate, and a large, chinless jaw. The teeth are essentially modern, though the canines and molars are quite large, and the enamel of the molars is often wrinkled. The limb bones are indistinguishable from those of modern humans.

Peking man postdates Java man and is considered more advanced in having a larger cranial capacity, a forehead, and nonoverlapping canines.

The original fossils were under study at the Peking Union Medical College in 1941 when, with Japanese invasion imminent, an attempt was made to smuggle them out of China and to the United States. The bones disappeared and have never been recovered, leaving only plaster casts for study. Renewed excavation in the caves, beginning in 1958, brought new specimens to light. In addition to fossils, core tools and primitive flaked tools were also found.