Historic mercury mine seeks UNESCO designation
Tongren city of Southwest China's Guizhou province has started efforts to apply for world cultural heritage status for its Wanshan mercury mine site, known as China's earliest and largest mercury mine.
The industrial site has a mining history of thousands of years. There is a 970km-long underground tunnel, which is a complete record of the mining traces and mine culture, with distinctive characteristics in different periods.
The city is striving to be accepted for the site's inclusion on the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites by 2025.
Wanshan is the origin and inheritance of Chinese cinnabar culture. Cinnabar has been an extremely important mineral since ancient times.
From the Qin (221-207 BC) and Han (206 BC-220 AD) dynasties, it has been used as the main ingredient in alchemy, or as pigment and medicine.
