Chinese Peasants Enjoy Gold Rush
About 6,000 families have made some unexpected money in a gold rush in part of China’s poorest province, the New China News Agency said Thursday.
It said more than 10,000 farmers and herdsmen rushed to a remote river valley in northwest Gansu province during the last two years to try their luck at gold prospecting.
The agency said one experienced digger made more than $12,000 last year, and 30 people working with him in the same mine each made more than $3,000--huge fortunes by the standards of Chinese peasants.
The report said more than 300 stores, including repair shops, restaurants, and a movie theater, were set up amid rows of miners’ tents at the entrance to the 10-mile river valley west of Qilian Mountain in Tianzhu county.
The agency said many who went to the gold fields are farm workers.
It said the local government had set up offices in the provincial capital of Lanzhou to help the peasants with their money.
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