In Lishui city – in East China's Zhejiang province – major efforts have been made towards the restoration of abandoned mining sites, in an initiative which is considered to be an important part of its ecological civilization construction.

This abandoned lead-zinc mining area is now a forest park. [Photo/Zhejiang Daily]

The city's Qingyuan county used to have a lead-zinc mining area but in April 2003, due to resource exhaustion, the mine stopped production and was abandoned. After years of mining operations, the surface vegetation was destroyed, resulting in soil pollution and degradation.

Efforts have been taken by the county in recent years to restore the ecology of the mining area. Through the improvement of polluted soil, native plant restoration and functional plant afforestation, among other methods, the area has been turned into a forest park.

The Sky City tourist complex in Jingning is built by an abandoned iron ore mine. [Photo/Zhejiang Daily]

Another similar case is the Baoshan iron ore mine in Lishui's Jingning She autonomous county. Since the 1990s, the reserves of iron ore in the mine were gradually exhausted and the environmental problems caused by mining there were getting increasingly severe.

In order to ensure the health of nearby villagers, the county shut down the mine and began to focus on ecological and environmental restoration.

In 2019, a commercial tourist complex called Sky City began construction by the mining area. Through an eco-friendly revamp – with appealing cultural motifs and artistic designs, among other things – it aims to position itself as an international high-end tourist destination that features sightseeing, entertainment and culture and also offers business facilities.

Sky City is widely considered as a benchmark transformation of mining land into eco-friendly tourist resources.