aeeble

Ben Shan Wu Keng, as the name suggests, was one of the nine mine tunnels during the heyday of the Ben Shan mining industry, located on the mountainside of Ben Shan at an elevation of about 295 meters. After Jinguashi stopped gold mining in 1972 (the 61st year of the Republic), Wu Keng also faced closure in 1978 (the 67th year of the Republic). Wu Keng is now the best-preserved tunnel among the nine Ben Shan mines; the air compressors, mine carts, washrooms, and ore-carrying cableways once used for gold extraction have all been preserved, bearing witness to a century of mining history in Jinguashi. In 2004 (the 93rd year of the Republic), the Gold Museum planned to let visitors experience what it was like for miners to work in the pitch-black tunnels, so a new 110-meter tunnel was excavated above the original Wu Keng tunnel and connected to the old one, extending the original 70-meter horizontal entrance to 180 meters. After more than three months of excavation, it became today’s Ben Shan Wu Keng Experience Tunnel, allowing visitors to glimpse the hardships of miners in just a few tens of minutes. Inside Wu Keng, the tunnel walls reinforced with acacia-wood “niu tiao zi” echo with the sound of dripping water, immediately conveying the mine’s dampness; yellow-toned lights on the walls turn the rough rock face into a golden hue. Along the way, visitors can glimpse miners at different stages of work—“setting niu tiao,” “drilling,” “blasting,” “hauling ore”—silently enacted in the shadows. Uncle A-Jin leads visitors deeper into the tunnel, conversing with a newly arrived young man as he recites every step of gold mining like treasured family lore, his voice echoing and stirring visitors’ desire to explore further.