Black Valley

Black Valley is the best known natural attraction of the old Wansheng mining district, on the Chongqing side of the border with Guizhou about 70 kilometres from the main urban area. Wansheng was assembled in 1955 out of parts of three counties, because the coal seams crossed the provincial line and the old boundaries could not administer them. Before tourism, the district accounted for as much as half of all the coal mined in Chongqing. The valley belongs to the karst that runs through this part of the city, where the limestone breaks the surface as stone forests, grouped peaks, caves and deep valleys.