High-resolution oxygen isotope records over the last 2249 ka (MIS 1-86) have been obtained from cores of the upper section (105.08 m) at ODP Site 1143 (water depth of 2772 m)drilled in the Nansha area, southern South China Sea. The sampling resolution is at about 2 ka intervals, resulting in one of the best oxygen isotope records over the global ocean. The oxygen isotope curves, displaying details in the Pleistocene glacial cycles, have revealed a nearly 300 ka long stage of transition from a predominant 40 ka to 100 ka periodicity. Therefore, the "Mid-Pleistocene Revolution" should be considered as a process of transition rather than an abrupt change. Within the 100 ka glacial cycles, the changes in tropical sea surface water were found to lead those in high-latitude ice sheet. Our comparisons show that the ice sheet expansion and the glacial stage extension in the Northern Hemisphere with the 100 ka cycles must have been driven not by ice sheet itself, but by processes outside the high latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere.