Passes built on the cliffs and a glass suspension bridge are among the highlights of Zhusha ancient town in Guizhou, which has turned from mercury mine site to a tourist hot spot. (Photo provided to China Daily)
Things, however, picked up after the refurbished town opened last year. "Now, we see people all over the place at weekends and during major holidays."
Tourism peaks from April to October, but there are also visitors in winter, says Huang.
Her shop sometimes makes more than 1,000 yuan a day now.
Huang also says she senses the popularity of the town through her WeChat account.
She regularly posts pictures and information about developments in Zhusha and many of her posts receive hundreds of responses.
Tourism has also created job opportunities, and many locals have taken up jobs in sanitation and security.'
As of now, the town has roughly 25 tourist attractions, with the mercury mining museum as the top draw.
The five-story museum in Tongren, which was built in 1982, was expanded in 2014, and now covers a floor area of 4,800 square meters.
At the museum, visitors can now learn about local culture, and mining history, besides seeing how sculpture and three-dimensional mapping is used to portray ethnic and natural elements.
The Soviet Expert Building, built in 1956 for experts from the former Soviet Union, covers an area of 1,400 square meters and features a garden and an artificial mountain. Many Soviet geologists lived in the building in the early 1950s.
The museum also features a 90-meter time tunnel that resembles a mine shaft and uses modern sound and light technology to create a time-travel experience.
In the tunnel, visitors see polychromatic light columns move in step with the music as they view pictures of miners at work.
The glass bridge in the area is the first of its kind in Guizhou, and visitors get a picturesque view of the mountains in the distance.
The Weilin Temple in the area is believed to be the first place in China to have developed elixirs for emperors. Ancient lore has it that most of the elixirs contained vermilion, which explains why Wanshan was chosen to make them.
For those who want to shop, the vermilion stone sales center at the town's entrance offers raw vermilion and vermilion artifacts.
As for Huang, the changes in her town are way beyond her expectations.
"I felt glad and proud when I say I am from Zhusha. I could not have dreamt of these changes in my life," she says.
