We study the bound states of anti-nucleons emerging from the lower continuum in finite nuclei within the relativistic Hartree approach including the contributions of the Dirac sea to the source terms of the meson fields. The Dirac equation is reduced to two Schro¨dinger-equivalent equations for the nucleon and the anti-nucleon respectively. These two equations are solved simultaneously in an iteration procedure. Numerical results show that the bound levels of anti-nucleons vary drastically when the vacuum contributions are taken into account. ©2001 American Institute of Physics.