“Why does the earth look like coal?” That’s a frequently asked question by many that pass by Peng
Huiyun’s navel orange orchard.
“Because it is coal.” That’s what Peng always answers.
Peng’s orchard, located in Shitang village, Yuannan township, Luxi county, Pingxiang, east
China’s Jiangxi province, was once a coal mine, which was a source of income for around 90
percent of the villagers in the 1990s, including Peng.
A 2009 national survey of forest resources found that over 90,000 mu, or 6,000 hectares of
abandoned mines in Pingxiang needed to be ecologically restored. As the idea of “lucid waters and
lush mountains are invaluable assets” gradually took root in the hearts of the Chinese people, the
abandoned mines grabbed the attention of the cadres in Pingxiang, who were expecting that the
ecological restoration could attract social capital to develop local industries.
“We were planning to contract barren mountains, and an official with the local forestry department
told us that there were abandoned mines here,” said Wei Yuanzhong, an executive of an eco-
farming company in Jiangxi.
By that time, Peng had already quit his mining job for a long time and was serving as the director
of the village committee. The message from the company hoping to contract the mines surprised
him very much.
Wei later planted navel oranges on the mines. Despite the fact that it seemed impossible, he was
quite confident about it. After professional determination of the composition of the soil on the
mines, Wei’s company found that the soil underneath the coal gangue was still fertile. Therefore,
the company flattened the ground, applied fertilizers, and buried straws under the soil to improve
its fertility. In the second year, navel oranges were planted there.
Instead of clearing away the coal gangue, Peng just left it there and flattened the ground, because
the soil was not polluted by the coal gangue. That’s why the earth in his orchard is black. The
orchard is projected to yeild 25,000 kilograms of navel oranges this year, according to him.
Now, Wei’s company has contracted 3,000 mu of abandoned mines in Pingxiang, and the local
government of Yuannan township has bought into the company with financial funds. A total of
294 households that have just been lifted out of poverty can receive annual bonus.
So far, Pingxiang has invested nearly 400 million yuan from the state and provincial revenue in
greening abandoned coal mines, and over 2/3 of the 90,000 mu of abandoned mines in the city
have been ecologically restored.
