Stones containing gold, which cost up to hundreds of yuan, are hot commodities at gift stores in Zhaoyuan. Wang Qian / China Daily

Reporter's log | Wang Kaihao

It's just after 7 pm in Zhaoyuan, Shandong province. There are few people walking the streets, and my colleague and I are the only customers in the restaurant.

"Everyone's mining," the waitress retorts, when I ask why.

The next morning, we take a minibus to a State-owned mine in Linglong town and finally get off at a place the conductor says is not far from our destination.

On the way we pass a store selling stones as decorations. The store owner cordially invites us in to look at the golden stones, which cost up to hundreds of yuan. Though she doesn't tell us where she gets these stones from, she implies they come from private mines.

Individuals are strictly forbidden to take ore from State-owned ones. When we ask her name, she guesses we are not really customers and instead turns her attention to some other people who have walked in.

They purchase some of the stones and say they plan to sell them in major cities for a huge markup. We leave and keep walking. We find a residential area with clean streets, restaurants and even fitness centers.

It's not the gritty place I imagined. The mine is near the residential area and has been State owned since 1962, before which it had been developed for decades.

A mill built during the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression (1937-1945) remains intact. Japan took 8,000 tons of gold from here.

I don't expect the miners to be talkative, but they are.

After speaking with Zhang Quanyou for two hours at his home, he eventually asks what we do for a living.

We tell him we are writing a story about miners, and he replies, "Oh, I see. You are writers".

Elsewhere, the welcome is not so friendly. There's a village beside the mine where some dogs bark warnings. We step into a yard to find someone to chat to, and two men appear out of some cabins.

"What do you want? This belongs to the mine," is all one of the men will say, making it clear they want us to move on.

We ask locals about visiting Jiangjia, the celebrated village that has grown rich on the proceeds of the gold mine. But we are told the security guards will not let us enter the village without permission.

We have to ask a local guide to help us.

The road to "El Dorado" is muddy and unpleasant after the rain. But there are many fancy cars traveling back and forth, and lorries filled with ore making their journeys. We are trapped in a traffic jam, the first traffic jam I've seen in a rural area.

When we reach the flourishing Jiangjia, deep in the mountains, all the villas in the resort look really splendid. I start to understand why everyone is so security conscious.

"When the miners are working, we have to ensure the safety of the rest of the villagers, since most of them are elderly people or kids," village official Lu Yijun says.

But this situation may change. After a new resort in the village is constructed in a few years, strangers will be part of the everyday scene.