Enping was surprised to see a mountain stream, stretching for ten kilometers, with beautiful stones, which is also the punching place for the gold rush experience.

This place shared in this issue is charming enough!

She is located in the eastern suburb of enping city, Guangdong Province, at the foot of Wanjin Mountain, a golden town in Quanlin. There are many names, such as "Jiudushui", "Jinkeng" and "Najin Valley" ... all refer to her, and every name is very expensive, unless it is "poetry", which is hard to ignore.

In fact, this place is a mountain stream, so it is called "Jiudushui", because it is a nine-bend mountain stream, 10 kilometers long, flowing through one valley after another. The water turns along the mountain to form a nine-bend, hence the name "nine-crossing water".

"Golden Pit", also known as "Golden Cave", means that there is gold in this place and there is inexhaustible gold. Do not believe, this is not a wave of fame. According to the mineral records of Enping County (191-1985), "At present, although there is no comprehensive survey and exploration of gold deposits in the county, it has been preliminarily proved in Dongxinxiang, Jinkeng Township and Naji's' Big Belly Wife' Mountain in Dong 'an District, and the county's gold reserves are about 5 tons. According to the census data of the provincial geological team, within 20 square kilometers of Dong' an District, with' Wumeihua' as the center, the most gold storage is the bottom of Qingnanjiao Reservoir. "

In addition, the records of Enping County during the Republic of China also recorded: "Dong 'an is rich in gold, followed by iron ore. Throughout the ages, gold mining has long been used to it in the local area. In the slack season, only a shovel, an iron pot and a bowl are needed, and one person or two people can complete the gold mining industry. "

The "Dongan District" and "Qingnanjiao Reservoir" mentioned above are this place. For ordinary people, the gold at the bottom of Qingnan Lake Reservoir can't be mined naturally. The place where people mine is a place called Jiudushui, where there are rich gold mines.

Starting from the foot of the mountain, walk through a mountain road. After about 10 minutes, "Over the water" appeared in front of me. This crossing is seven or eight meters wide, which coincides with the winter dry season. The water is shallow, and all kinds of stones, red, blue, purple, yellow and white, are exposed. Under the warm sun in winter, they are colorful and become a world of strange stones.

It is said that in this mountain stream of "Jiudushui", only the mountains and waters above "Wudushui" will have gold.

In 1930s, some villagers picked up a glittering ore in Jiudushui and took it to Enping's gold shop for testing. This is indeed a kind of gold ore with high purity!

"There is gold in Jiudu Water!" The news spread like wildfire and people flocked to it. First, the villagers developed it sporadically, and then it developed into a group and hired mines to mine. Jiudushui Gold Mine is becoming more and more famous and has become a famous gold pit. People from far and near gathered here to dig a bucket of gold once and for all.

At that time, the way of gold panning was relatively backward, and most of them used manpower to dig holes and transport mud. Later, explosives were gradually used to dig to a depth of 200 to 300 meters. When you are lucky, the gold digger can get 10 gold. In the 1950s, because of the extreme left line, gold prospectors once pressed the temporary button and could only watch gold lead a poor life. After the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee, villagers eager for a better life went out for gold again, with the largest number of 1985, reaching more than 1300. There are both 70-and 80-year-olds and 78-year-olds in the gold prospectors, men, women and children, who are in full swing and happy!

People who come to look for gold are no longer limited to Enping locals. People from Xinxing, Xinyi, Gaozhou, Yangchun, Kaiping, Taishan, Huazhou and even Guangxi, Yunnan and other provinces have come to share a piece of the action. Some use diesel engines, sand pumps and other gold mining equipment to mine, and have gained a lot.

Either alone or together, usually during the day, but if you dig "golden seedlings", you need to work overtime. "Jinmiao" is a local dialect, that is, a yellow and lubricated rock layer that stretches like a seedling, and gold can be dug along that rock layer. Being able to dig "golden seedlings" indicates the coming of harvest. Overtime is not only to speed up the progress, but also to protect the precious gold at your fingertips.

Gold panning is a heavy job, which requires good luck, patience and perseverance. If you are lucky, you can find gold by digging up the soil. Bad luck, it's no use digging dozens of meters.

At that time, gold was divided into "mountain gold" and "water gold" according to the panning position. "Mountain gold" refers to the gold collected on the mountain, which is large in quantity but relatively low in purity. "Water gold" is gold found in sand in water, which is small in quantity but high in purity.

After the gold rush, you should break the stones rich in gold. When you meet a big stone, you need to break it with a stone crusher. Then you can put it in an iron pot and wash it with water, so that the gold can be separated from the stone chips. Gold powder needs to be washed with mercury, which can bind gold powder together to form small pieces of gold. Gold panning needs rich experience, and novices who just started out lack experience, and often can't dig gold for half a year.

According to the Mineral Records of Enping County, there are 37 large mines in Dong 'an District, and there are also many individual mines with scattered gold mines. 1985, the gold mining area reached more than 300 mu, the gold output reached about 2300 liang, and the output value reached more than 3.9 million yuan.

The price of gold was not high at that time. When villagers dig up gold, they usually sell it to banks at the price of 2.4 yuan per minute, that is, 1 USD 24 yuan. Here, "minute" and "money" are units of weight, and 10 minute equals one dollar, and one dollar equals 50 grams. After 80, someone came to buy it, every money was 28 yuan. Later, the price of gold rose gradually, and it could be sold for more than 500 yuan per money at the highest time. Some villagers who discovered gold built houses and lived a good life.

It is worth mentioning that Enping is a famous hometown of overseas Chinese in Guangdong, with a large number of overseas Chinese. Many workers who searched for gold in Jiudushui in the early days later went to New Zealand, Australia, the United States and Africa to return to their old jobs. While going abroad, they also brought Jiudushui's gold mining technology and tools to gold mining points all over the world, making a certain contribution to the world gold mining industry!

Going against the current, the mountains dozens of meters high are covered with vegetation, the nearby leaves are shining with sunshine, and the distant mountains are dark and empty.

It takes less than an hour to reach Wudushui, and you can see the traces of gold panning in those years. In that big mountain, there is a hollowed-out mine. Those mines vary in depth, reaching hundreds of meters deep and about one meter wide, slightly higher than people, allowing people to enter and exit freely. Now, if you dig out the weeds in the hole, you can see those mines. If you have gold panning experience, you can still find gold.

Jiudushui Jinkeng also has a name "Jinna Valley", which was later developed into a tourist area, namely "Quanlinjin Town", and was named after one of the scenic spots. "Jinna Valley" is the first scenic spot in southern China to experience the gold rush culture. Through the main scenes of ancient mine caves, ancient villages, ancient culture, gold panning, ancient scouring, etc., the ancient and the present are organically combined to show Enping from all directions and angles.

How many people's gold-seeking dreams have been achieved by the endless nine-crossing water and the endless golden pit?

Netizens, did your ancestors go to Jiudushui for gold in the last century? Welcome to share in the comments section!

Want to know more about Guangdong's customs and cultural landscape, welcome to pay attention to "Walking in Guangdong", more exciting, so stay tuned!