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JIXI - December 2008

By the end of 2008, the Jixi Coal Mine railway system was one of the three remaining centres
in China to continue working steam locomotives. The other two being Sandaoling and Zhalai Nuer.

Picking Over The Pieces - Coal scavengers have a slanted view on life as they go about their precarious
business on a 45 degree sloping workplace. Activity at the spoil tip, Xinghua Mine, Jixi, northern China.
© Photo: David Hill.

In China, finding a reasonable length of railway line to see a steam loco working hard is becoming more
difficult by the week. But the Jixi Mine System still obliges, and in earlier December 2008, SY 1369
was pounding up the bank from the Zhangyang Mine with empties for Xinghua. Northern China was blasted by
winds from Siberia, hence the smoke effects.

A scene at the Beichang washery, where workers load trucks with the reclaimed coal slurry, destined for the
briquette industry. December 2008.

It is often said that China sits on a bed of coal, and it's never more evident than at Jixi in the north.
The landscape is given over to production of 'the black stuff' and its by-products, be it the piles of spoil,
or the heaps of solidified slurry for the briquette industry. The red driving wheels of the locomotive
are the only colour in this monochrome world. A train tipping spoil near the Xinghua Mine. December 2008.

Atmospheric scenes during the 8 am shift change at the Didao washery, where we found much activity during the
December 2008 visit.