Pangu Mountain Mine Park

Pangu Mountain Mine Park

Pangu Mountain Park boasts an expansive area, the largest in southern Jiangxi and even larger than the former Ganzhou Park. It features lush greenery, winding paths adorned with lotus blossoms, and pavilions tucked away among the trees. The zoo, children’s playground, and lakeside dance hall are particularly distinctive. Even now, despite being somewhat neglected, it remains an excellent spot for leisure.

This park, built in the 1970s, is marked as a tourist attraction on a travel map of southern Jiangxi. Having grown up here, I know it intimately, and to this day, it remains a popular place for people to visit during the Spring Festival and take evening strolls.

The park is rich in vegetation, with large trees, shrubs, bamboo, and wild grass transforming it into a natural oxygen bar. Despite the abundance of plants, everything is neatly arranged, thanks to the thoughtful planning—this park was built through voluntary labor by workers. The construction served two purposes: to provide employees and their families with a recreational space, and to use the environment to block sandstorms and treat industrial wastewater. As for the sandstorms, mining naturally produces waste rock and tailings, which form two other scenic features of Pangu Mountain: the waste rock pile and the tailings dam. But let’s leave that for another time.

The park isn’t just about trees—it also has an artificial lake and various recreational facilities. The beautiful boat-shaped structure on the lake is one of the park’s iconic landmarks. There’s also the zigzag bridge over the lake and the lotus flowers on the water’s surface, all of which remain vivid in my memory. Thinking back to the slides, cradles, seesaws, and other play equipment from my childhood still brings a sense of nostalgia. These facilities may not compare to the electrified rides in modern city amusement parks, but they hold the essence of my childhood. Most of these play structures were designed and built by mine workers themselves—not only were they aesthetically pleasing, but also highly practical. To this day, they remain popular spots for children to play.

The park once had a zoo, which reportedly housed large animals like tigers, though I never got to see that era. I personally saw monkeys, porcupines, and various birds. Funny enough, one of my elementary school classmates was bitten by a monkey while teasing it and had to get a rabies shot. The zoo has now been abandoned. It’s said that some of the animals were relocated to the Ganzhou Zoo. So much history lies in the rise and fall of places.

That must have been a modern amusement park. I remember there were so many fun things to do when I was little, but now it’s changed so much.

Nowadays, every time I go back home, the park remains a favorite spot. We walk along the gravel paths, chat, or find a table to play cards—perfect for passing the time. It’s just that the wild grass has grown so tall, adding a touch of melancholy. I remember during our school days, we even brought sickles to the park to cut the grass as part of our voluntary labor. Now, during the Spring Festival, you might still run into old classmates here—many of whom you haven’t seen in years. A lot of them have long moved to the county town or even farther cities. This place holds memories for them too. When we meet again, it’s no longer the same people or the same scenery, and yet, so many emotions well up.