Black Oil Mountain

Black Oil Mountain

Black Oil Mountain is a national AAA-level tourist attraction.

Black Oil Mountain is located in the northeastern part of Karamay, more than two kilometers from the city center, and is an important site of natural oil seepage

in the area. Due to years of crude oil overflow, a cluster of asphalt mounds has formed here. The largest mound is 13 meters high and covers an area of 0.2 square kilometers, and the oil is a valuable low pour-point type. "Karamay" in Uyghur means "black oil," so this natural petroleum asphalt mound is called Black Oil Mountain. This black asphalt mountain and the petroleum buried beneath it have been lying dormant here for hundreds of millions of years. Due to crustal movements, underground oil, under the influence of formation pressure, has continuously seeped up through rock fissures. The lighter components of the oil evaporated, leaving behind the thick residue which, along with sand and soil, solidified into this Black Oil Mountain. To promote the spirit of hard work and pioneering endeavor, the Xinjiang Petroleum Administration and the Karamay Municipal Government erected a nearly three-meter-high stone monument and a statue of an Uyghur elder riding a donkey while playing a rawap (a traditional string instrument) on October 1, 1982, at Black Oil Mountain. Today, Black Oil Mountain serves as a memorial site for revolutionary tradition education and a popular tourist destination for people of all ethnicities. At the southern foot of Black Oil Mountain lies a park covering an area of 130,000 square meters, centered around Tuohu Lake, which has a water surface of 196,000 square meters. There are two islands in the lake: Solitary Island and Foot Island. On Solitary Island stands a small pavilion, next to which three 200-million-year-old pine tree fossils are displayed—rare and precious specimens. Foot Island is shaped like a foot. To the north of the island is a Rainbow Bridge, and to the east, a winding bridge connects it to the lakeshore. On the northern bank of the Rainbow Bridge stands an artificial hill over 10 meters high.

Black Oil Mountain is located two kilometers northeast of downtown Karamay and is a Triassic oil outcrop of the Karamay Oilfield. It consists of a group of asphalt mounds formed by years of crude oil overflow, the largest of which is 13 meters high and covers an area of 0.2 square kilometers. The oil found here is a rare low pour-point type. According to geologists, oil has been seeping from Black Oil Mountain for as long as 200 million years. In late Qing Dynasty Chinese texts, Black Oil Mountain and its surrounding areas were referred to as Qing Shi Xia (Green Stone Gorge).

- Book Records

Books such as <> and <> document the oil seepage here: "Qing Shi Xia, rich in petroleum," and "Black Oil Mountain in Qing Shi Xia... currently has nine springs, with the largest at the mountaintop yielding up to two hundred and several dozen jin of oil per day during peak flow." Before liberation, local residents had long collected oil from the site. Even in the early post-liberation period, an Uyghur elder named Sailimu Bayi lived in a cellar nearby, gathering crude oil, which he then transported by donkey to nearby areas in exchange for daily necessities.