Black Valley: from the coal country to the karst
Wansheng supplied up to half of Chongqing's coal; the valley that replaced the pitheads is part of the limestone belt behind it.
Qijiang District sits at the southern edge of Chongqing, with Guizhou along its southern border. It was formed in 2011 by merging Qijiang County with Wansheng District, and it covers 2,747.8 square kilometres with 1.22 million people. The ground is mineral country: coal seams proven at 2 billion tonnes, pyrite, limestone and dolomite, and a geology that has also preserved an ornithopod-dominated dinosaur tracksite in the Lower Cretaceous Jiaguan Formation. The Sichuan-Guizhou Railway crosses it. In the south-central hills the old town of Dongxi keeps a county seat first set up in 619, and the salt road that once carried Sichuan salt south towards Guizhou still runs through its streets.
Wansheng supplied up to half of Chongqing's coal; the valley that replaced the pitheads is part of the limestone belt behind it.
The karst gorge forest in the old Wansheng coal country that replaced pitheads with visitors.
Black Stone Gorge, in the limestone and coal country of southern Qijiang near the Guizhou border.
A county seat from 619 to 644 and a market town ever since, with the oldest post office in the south-west and a salt road through it.