JYQC5: “Mine Shaft”

This set of ruins is located on mining company property. These are difficult to see, but are indicative of many smaller ruins that seem ubiquitous in this area. I took a bad fall here because of lose rocks that fill a large rectangular quarried cavern. You can see the dark outline of the cavern from the map. It is now filled with trees and the roof collapsed long ago. Sections of the walls are still visible as you walk on top of the collapsed ceiling. Many of these truly ancient caverns are now just an outline slowly being reclaimed by the forest.

The “Mine Shaft” cave exemplifies one of the things I love about China. This is a working mine with a tall wall, entrance gate, and guard house. I arrived at 6:30am, unannounced and interrupted the security guard’s breakfast. I told him I want to go into their back property and look for a cave. He tilted his head to the side and looked at me funny, but then said “ok”. I wandered through the awakening worksite, past the meager onsite housing and parked equipment, and back up into the forest beyond the din of the mine. No one really cared that I had no business being there. I mean, it’s a working mine and I’m just some foreigner who wants to look around. Probably 25% of these locations require some amount of “local hospitality” (or a blind eye) to gain access to the site.