Wanshan Mercury Mine Site 万山汞矿遗址

About Wanshan Mercury Mine Site

What survives is a worked mountain. A feature published on the Guizhou Provincial Energy Bureau portal records 970 kilometres of underground galleries and 3.75 square kilometres of worked-out ground, with groups of old adits cut into cliff faces. At Heidongzi the entrance cliff is about 100 metres high and the curved recess about 150 metres along, with dozens of adit mouths opening into it; behind them the workings are stacked and interconnected into 27 galleries, five levels deep in places, with more than ten main galleries running several hundred metres. The patterns on the rock walls are the remains of fire-setting: for want of explosives, miners burned brushwood and charcoal against the rock and then threw water on it, so that the mercury-bearing ore cracked and flaked away. Stone steps, tunnels and cut grooves left by early miners are still clearly visible.

Two of the named workings, Xianrendong and Yunnanti Dongzi, are cut into steep cliffs. A natural rock pillar called the Fairy Stone stands at the mouth of Xianrendong, and legend makes it the guardian of the cinnabar. Xianrendong is divided into upper, middle and lower levels, is described as able to hold a thousand people, and joins the Heidongzi workings to form a single underground network. Whether Wanshan supplied part of the mercury in the tomb of the First Emperor has been argued both ways and remains unresolved.

The mine closed in 2001 when the main ore bodies had been worked out and the resource was exhausted. The site was listed in 2005 in the first national batch of mine parks, selected in 2006 as a nationally protected site, and entered China's tentative list for World Heritage in 2012. The former head-office building of the Guizhou Mercury Mine, itself a provincial-level protected relic of more than 4,800 square metres, now houses the Wanshan Mercury Mine Industrial Heritage Museum in Tuping community; more than 4,000 industrial objects are displayed there, and a museum guide describes five exhibition floors with the galleries on floors one to three divided into eight sections, among them mechanical artefacts, the 'thousand-year cinnabar capital', 'patriotic mercury' and the 'rebirth of the mercury capital'. As of June 2024 the district was drawing up near-, medium- and long-term conservation and presentation projects as part of a World Heritage bid for the Wanshan cinnabar mining heritage.

What to look for

• The Heidongzi cliff face, about 100 metres high with a curved recess some 150 metres along, pierced by dozens of adit mouths
• The fire-setting marks on the gallery walls, left by burning brushwood and charcoal against the rock and dousing it with water
• The stone steps, tunnels and cut grooves left by early miners, still visible inside the workings
• Xianrendong, cut into a steep cliff on three levels, with the natural rock pillar known as the Fairy Stone standing at its mouth
• The Wanshan Mercury Mine Industrial Heritage Museum in the former Guizhou Mercury Mine head office, with more than 4,000 industrial objects on five exhibition floors

Location & getting there

Getting to Wanshan Mercury Mine Site

Confirm the venue or campus, reservation channel and exhibition calendar. A museum name may cover more than one building.

• Search for 万山汞矿遗址 with 铜仁市 and 万山区.