YINCHUAN, Nov. 12 (Xinhua) -- Weathered red brick factory buildings, rusted doors and windows, and faded slogans have not prevented a once-deserted mine in northwest China from becoming a must-see destination for tourists, particularly movie fans.
With a complete set of mining and other relevant facilities that operated for 30 years, and located next to diverse landforms including canyons and desert, the Shitanjing mining site in the city of Shizuishan, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, has attracted nearly 60 film crews, particularly for suspense, military and sci-fi movie productions.
Another hit movie added to the site's charm in the summer of 2026. "Once Upon a Time in the Middle East," which filmed a quarter of its exterior scenes in Shitanjing, has been selected by the Chinese mainland as its official entry for the Best International Feature Film category at the 99th Academy Awards.
"The peak number of tourists in Shitanjing reached 10,000 in a single day after the movie was released," said Wang Peng, an official of the Shitanjing subdistrict, adding that the site has received over 370,000 tourists in the first 10 months of this year, an increase of about 160 percent year on year.
"Many visitors thought the scenes were filmed abroad, but they were actually in the mining area where we grew up," said Ge Yihong, a 64-year-old local resident. She has become a "living map" of Shitanjing, helping film crews scout filming locations and providing free guiding services to tourists.
Shitanjing was one of the ten major coal industry bases planned by China during the first Five-Year Plan period (1953-1957). At its peak, 130,000 people from all over the country lived there, with factories, shopping malls, schools, cinemas and other facilities readily available.
Starting in 2002, the gradual closure of mining areas, driven by industrial structure adjustment and strategic resource protection, caused the population to drop sharply, and the site fell into decline for a period.
A turning point came in 2017, when Ningxia rolled out an ecological protection and restoration program for the Helan Mountains, home to the site. Tourists and veteran miners began to visit the site, while film crews started scouting it for shooting locations.
"Complete mining and supporting facilities from the 1960s to the 1990s are well preserved here, including factories, dormitories and stations, offering authentic scenes and a strong atmosphere for film crews," said Zhu Yuhong, director of the bureau of culture, sports, tourism, radio, film and television of the Dawukou District, which administers the site.
Shizuishan launched efforts in 2021 to develop Shitanjing into a tourism destination centered on industrial tourism and filmmaking. An actors' guild was also established at the site, providing more than 13,000 extras for film crews.
Ge opened a restaurant at the site last year. "With the growing number of tourists, daily turnover can reach as much as 2,000 yuan (around 298 U.S. dollars)," she said.
The walls of Ge's restaurant are covered with stills from films and TV dramas shot at Shitanjing, while the cabinets, by contrast, are filled with old items used by miners of her father's generation.
"In the past, people came here to mine coal and make a living, but now they come to chase film scenes and take in the scenery," she said.
Like Shitanjing, an increasing number of abandoned mining areas across the country are being revitalized through filmmaking and tourism industries.
As short dramas explode in popularity, the "cinnabar ancient town," one of China's largest cinnabar industrial sites, located in the city of Tongren, southwest China's Guizhou Province, has become a popular filming base for short dramas, providing locations for over 200 film and television works.
The town has introduced a "travel with short dramas" program, in which visitors can put on mining work clothes, interact with actors in the scenic area, and experience what it is like to act in short dramas.
Meanwhile, the Jiulonggang historical and cultural block in the city of Huainan, east China's Anhui Province, formerly a major coal mining site, rose to popularity after a hit TV drama filmed there aired in 2025. In the past year alone, it welcomed more than a million tourists. ■
