At the Jinchuan National Mine Park, the open pit cuts into the ground southwest of central Jinchang. The city’s culture and tourism bureau describes planted slopes, reclaimed spoil and viewing routes around the mining landscape. The pit gives a direct sense of the scale of extraction that brought the city into being. Nearby streets and parks show how an industrial landscape became part of ordinary urban life.
From the journal
Jinchang, built around nickel
Jinchang took shape as a city for the Jinchuan nickel operation. The open pit, company history and urban neighborhoods make the relationship between mineral extraction and city building visible.
In the same city · Jinchang ↗The mine at the city’s edge
From enterprise to city
Large-scale development of the Jinchuan deposit began in 1958, drawing workers and builders from across the country. The city profile describes Jinchang as a place established because the mine and the enterprise needed an urban base. Jinchang became a prefecture-level city in 1981. Its name combines characters from Jinchuan and Yongchang, joining the mining district with the older county. Nickel and cobalt production shaped employment, migration and public identity; the city’s modern history is inseparable from the industrial project.
A modern city in the corridor
The 1981 city joined Jinchuan District and Yongchang County within one prefecture-level administration, bringing a new industrial center into the middle of the Hexi Corridor. The Jinchuan open pit and nearby neighborhoods show how mineral extraction shaped urban form. Jinchang’s modern history is both industrial and civic: a mine, an operating enterprise and a city developed together.