Shibanxi Magic - Bago Heritage - Huangcun Museum Underground
Click here for the introduction to Bagou Heritage.
The mining museum charges serious money for admission, CNY 50 per person, with a minimum charge of CNY 150 for a group. I confess we went down initially, more in a spirit of helping subsidise what we thought was a worthwhile venture than because we thought it would be fair value. However, we spent well over an hour underground and returned well satisfied with what we had seen and would strongly recommend it to future visitors here. Fortunately, our visit coincided with that of the Head of the Jiayang Power Company, Mr. Fan Gang, who was entertaining the head of Qianwei County. He kindly asked Mr. Zhong and Mr. Yuan of the Public Relations Department to accompany us on our visit and they proved knowledgeable and helpful guides, supplementing the standard excellent bilingual signs and, of course, Yuehong acted as interpreter where necessary. I haven't grown a beard, that's my old friend Peter Nettleship, with Mr. Fan and Yuehong.
Below is a map of the underground system, visitors/miners enter middle right and the other shaft (used to remove coal formerly) is near the middle top.
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There are some 276 steps to descend, initially they parallel a railway incline (600mm), at a Y junction half way down is a representation of how coal was removed in pre-mechanisation days. According to our guides, the whole tunnel complex was in a remarkably good state of repair, considering it had been abandoned for some 20 years and needed very little work done on it. Equipment from small private mines is represented by this 300mm gauge skip:
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This sign is couched
in military style language and encourages safety,
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This is the
main ventilation shaft:
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Needless to say a large mine used
something more a bit larger than this:
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Hence the
need for this historic photograph:
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Drilling into rock below a seam:
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Traditional mining in a smaller mine:
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Reconstruction of a small 300mm gauge
underground mine
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Reconstruction of a small 300mm gauge
underground mine
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Arched section with slogan (ca 1960s)
exhorting the workers: 'Grab the revolution and increase production'
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Thanks to a good pumping system, the
mine is remarkably dry but these small stalactites are growing in one part.
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Model showing automatic unloading
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I have seen
a similar system on the electrified narrow gauge at Nanpiao
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The base of the main shaft:
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Lady coal miner in action:
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Click here for the introduction to Bagou Heritage.