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JIXI - December 2008

All in a days work - the ponies wait patiently while their carts are loaded with coal
slurry at the Beichang washery on the Chengzihe side of the Jixi system.

Up at the Xiaohengshan Mine mine, with the light fading fast, the industrial atmosphere under the hopper
was too good to miss.

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 late last year (December), this SY was
pounding up the bank from the Zhangyang Mine with empties for Xinghua. All photographs - © David Hill.

Of course, no stay in Jixi is complete without a visit to the Dongcheng Yard, and almost every morning we were
drawn there to witness the steamy 8am shift change. Quite a sight in the 21st century.

An SY coasts through the fields and villages, away from the Donghaikuang mine, returning to the CNR with loaded coal.