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Soaking in hot springs inside an old underground mining area, admiring the fascinating landscapes of the “earth’s core”; riding a rail cable car to experience a day in the life of a “gold miner”; even enjoying a thrilling rafting adventure inside an abandoned mine shaft — the “Underground World” project in Hushan Township, Suichang County, has transformed, rehabilitated, and redeveloped old mining zones, integrating hot spring resources and adopting an “art + tourism” model to create a large-scale tourism complex featuring adventure entertainment, wellness, and mining-themed education.
This mining-themed “journey to the center of the earth” satisfies every curiosity about the underground world.
“Underground wealth” is nature’s gift to Lishui. With “nine parts mountains, half part water, and half part farmland”, Lishui is rich in mineral resources. People living on this land have never ceased to develop and utilize underground resources from ancient times to the present day.
The well-known Suichang Gold Mine, with a mining history that can be traced back to the Tang Dynasty, has withstood the test of time and remains vibrant today. Fluorite mines in Suichang, Longquan, and Jinyun, lead-zinc mines in Longquan, molybdenum and pyrophyllite mines in Qingtian, and kaolin mines in Songyang all play important roles in their respective industries and inject strong momentum into local development.
Over the course of history, people have used their wisdom to utilize and reinvent the underground resources gifted by nature, giving rise to brilliant cultural treasures on this land. The abundant porcelain clay resources in Longquan have laid the foundation for the thousand-year inheritance of Longquan celadon-making techniques, endowing the celadon with its unique charm: “green as jade, bright as a mirror, and resonant like a chime”. Pieces of warm-textured pyrophyllite from Qingtian are intricately carved into exquisite artworks, carrying the legacy of Qingtian’s millennia-old stone carving culture and reaching markets both at home and abroad.
In 2024, the operating revenue of the Longquan celadon industry reached 2.467 billion yuan, with an industrial added value of 822 million yuan. The output value of Qingtian stone carving reached 1.843 billion yuan.
Geothermal hot springs are another manifestation of “underground wealth”. In recent years, hot springs have been successively discovered in places like Suichang and Qingtian, fueling the booming “hot spring economy”.
Suichang’s Hongxingping Hot Spring Resort is a notable example. Drawing water from 400 meters underground, it is one of the rare natural fluorite hot springs. With a constant temperature of around 41°C throughout the year, the spring water is clear and stable, high in fluoride, and contains metasilicic acid, calcium carbonate, and other minerals — making it a pure and natural hot spring. In addition, secret hot spring destinations like Nayun Hot Spring Resort in Jingning and Zuwang Valley in Qingtian continue to attract urban travelers into the mountains.
There is great promise in writing the “underground chapter”. Beyond hot springs, “Lishui Spring Water” has turned water into gold. As a flagship product of the “mountain” brand series in Lishui, “Lishui Spring Water” has garnered widespread attention since its debut. The water source is located on the northern slope of the Baishanzu National Nature Reserve, known for its scenic beauty and excellent ecological environment. The ancient water is drawn from bedrock formed in the Proterozoic era (approximately 2.5 billion to 570 million years ago), extracted from a depth of 150 meters underground. It is rich in beneficial minerals including metasilicic acid, calcium, magnesium, zinc, and strontium.
Since its market launch in 2021, the sales of “Lishui Spring Water” have increased year by year, with expanding market share and distribution. It is gradually becoming a trendy drinking water product. In 2024, “Lishui Spring Water” secured a customized water order for more than 1,400 Geely Auto stores nationwide, winning a sales order worth tens of millions of yuan.
Reviving dormant resources and achieving a splendid transformation — turning abandoned mountain mines into tourism treasures is a bold innovation in Lishui’s deep commitment to ecological development and its faithful practice of the “Two Mountains” theory. As a key national base for mineral development, Lishui left behind a large number of abandoned mines since mining activities ceased in the 1990s. To address this, Lishui established a special task force for mine rehabilitation and launched dedicated restoration efforts, transforming 93 abandoned mines into popular internet-famous attractions. Among them, the “Yandang Book House” in Jinyun, converted from a former quarry by the architectural team of Xu Tiantian, now serves as a library, theater, and exhibition hall — and has become a highly sought-after cultural destination. Nayun · Sky City in Jingning, transformed from an abandoned mine, combines cliffs, minerals, hot springs, and She ethnic characteristics to become a new favorite in cultural tourism consumption.
From the Suichang fluorite mine to the Jinyun “Yandang Book House”, from “Lishui Spring Water” to the “hot spring economy”, Lishui is gradually unlocking the formula for underground wealth — balancing development and protection, integrating innovation and transformation — and converting resource advantages into economic strengths, so that lucid waters and lush mountains may truly yield mountains of gold and silver.