Shanglin County (;

Standard Zhuang Standard Zhuang ( autonym: , ; pre-1982 autonym: ; Sawndip: ; ) is the official standardized form of the Zhuang languages, which are a branch of the Northern Tai languages. Its pronunciation is based on that of the Yongbei Zhuang dialect ...

: ) is a

county A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...

Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region Guangxi,; officially the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China, located in South China and bordering Vietnam ( Hà Giang, Cao Bằng, Lạng Sơn, and Quảng Ninh Provinces) and the ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

, it is under the administration of the

prefecture-level city A prefecture-level city () or prefectural city is an administrative division of the China, People's Republic of China (PRC), ranking below a province of China, province and above a Counties of the People's Republic of China, county in China's ...

Nanning Nanning; is the capital of the Guangxi, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in South China, southern China. It is known as the "Green City (绿城) " because of its abundance of lush subtropical foliage. Located in the South of Guangxi, Nanning ...

, the capital of Guangxi. It borders the

Laibin Laibin ( zh, s=来宾市, t=來賓市, p=Láibīn, Zhuang: Laizbinh) is a prefecture-level city in the central part of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China. History Laibin is an ancient town with more than 2000 years of history. The area ...

to the northeast.

Administrative divisions

Shanglin County is divided into 7 towns, 3 townships and 1 ethnic township: ;towns *Dafeng Town 大丰镇 *Mingliang Town 明亮镇 *Xiangxian Town 巷贤镇 *Baixu Town 白圩镇 *Sanli Town 三里镇 *Qiaoxian Town 乔贤镇 *Xiyan Town 西燕镇 ;townships *Chengtai Township 澄泰乡 *Mushan Township 木山乡 *Tanghong Township 塘红乡 ;ethnic township *Zhenxu Yao Ethnic Township 镇圩瑶族乡

Climate

Gold mining

Shanglin County has a longstanding tradition of

gold mining Gold mining is the extraction of gold by mining. Historically, mining gold from Alluvium, alluvial deposits used manual separation processes, such as gold panning. The expansion of gold mining to ores that are not on the surface has led to mor ...

, with deposits concentrated in three of its towns. This legacy has shaped not only the local economy but also patterns of

international migration International migration occurs when people cross state boundaries and stay in the host state for some minimum length of the time. Migration occurs for many reasons. Many people leave their home countries in order to look for economic opportunities ...

. Beginning in 2006, large numbers of Shanglin residents began traveling to

Ghana Ghana, officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It is situated along the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, and shares borders with Côte d’Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, and Togo to t ...

to engage in small-scale gold mining. At its peak before 2013, the Shanglin migrant mining population in Ghana alone exceeded 12,000.Dongsheng Wang. "Shanglin gold miners and their social network", MIDEQ, 15 March 2022
/ref> Following a crackdown on

illegal mining Illegal mining is mining activity that is undertaken without state permission. Illegal mining is the extraction of precious metals/rocks without following the proper procedures to participate in legal mining activity. These procedures include pe ...

launched by Ghanaian authorities in 2013, many Shanglin miners left the country, while others relocated to countries such as

Mali Mali, officially the Republic of Mali, is a landlocked country in West Africa. It is the List of African countries by area, eighth-largest country in Africa, with an area of over . The country is bordered to the north by Algeria, to the east b ...

Togo Togo, officially the Togolese Republic, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Ghana to Ghana–Togo border, the west, Benin to Benin–Togo border, the east and Burkina Faso to Burkina Faso–Togo border, the north. It is one of the le ...

, and the

Democratic Republic of the Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), also known as the DR Congo, Congo-Kinshasa, or simply the Congo (the last ambiguously also referring to the neighbouring Republic of the Congo), is a country in Central Africa. By land area, it is t ...

. By 2020, the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

further disrupted outbound migration, and the number of Shanglin miners across Africa fell to an estimated 10,000. These mining ventures are typically financed and coordinated through robust social networks based on shared hometown ties. Shanglin miners often operate in informal or

artisanal mining Artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) is a blanket term for a type of subsistence mining involving a miner who may or may not be officially employed by a List of mining companies, mining company but works independently, mining minerals using the ...

sectors, assuming roles such as mine owners, foremen, or technicians. Local African partners typically provide access to land and assist with obtaining permits, in exchange for rent or a share of profits. Over time, the boundary between worker and investor is fluid: successful workers may establish their own operations, while former mine owners may return to wage labor to recover from losses.

References

{{authority control Counties of Guangxi Nanning