2018年CRI Tongling: a copper city's now and past

 

The Streaming down the Yangtze team has arrived in the city of Tongling, Anhui Province.

Owing to its copper¹ deposits, it was an important center in ancient China for bronze production.

The scale of the copper industry has gradually increased and it remains² an economic pillar of the city to this day.

For more on this we are now joined with CRI's Yang Guang, who is exploring the city and its copper industry.

What can you tell us about Tongling's bronze production in ancient China?

Tongling was one of the first places in ancient China recorded to mine and smelt³ copper in large scale, starting as early as in Shang and Zhou dynasties, which was around 3000 years ago. Thus Tongling is also called the birth place of Chinese bronze culture. 

Yesterday we had a tour to the museum of Tongling and learned some copper production history of the city. For the past 3000 years, the activity of making bronze has never ceased here. There are ten or so copper mine relic⁴ sites discovered around Tongling and archeologists have also found a great amount of bronze antiques, most of which are now exhibited in the museum. Now over 5000 bronze made historical items including antique wine cups, swords, bowls and coins are displayed. 

Bronze production generally went declined in ancient China around Han Dynasty when iron replaced bronze for weapon material choice and ceramics⁵ for wares⁶. However some 1000 years ago in Tang Dynasty, Tongling copper mining industry was still at its heyday⁷. The famous poet Li Bai had written two poems about the Tongling copper smelting⁸ scene, describing miners busily working. This also reflects the status of Tongling as one of the bronze production centers in ancient China.

How is the copper industry developing at present in Tongling?

Tongling is now the smallest prefecture-level city in China. Today the city's industrial base still revolves⁹ around the several nearby copper mines and copper processing operations. The first industrial base of bronze production of contemporary China is in Tongling.

Yesterday we visited a bronze industrial plant in the city and saw the whole production line. It was very hot in the plant; workers told us the temperature plant could reach 50 degrees in summer. But instead of producing with mass man power, now the whole smelting process has achieved total mechanization.

Meantime Tongling City is located in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River and this geographic¹⁰ advantage facilitates river transportation of bronze produced from here.

Additionally Tongling has developed other bronze based industries. For example Tongling Nonferrous Metals Group is the second largest electrolytic copper producer in the world. Other companies of the city also produce electromagnetic wires.

Tongling is not limited by bronze and bronze based industries.

The local mineral resources also include iron, coal, gold, silver, tin plus more than twenty other rare minerals associated with them. And the processing operation of these resources has been increasingly mature in Tongling.

That was CRI's Yang Guang with the Streaming down the Yangtze team.

1 copper   

n.铜；铜币；铜器；adj.铜(制)的；(紫)铜色的

参考例句：

• The students are asked to prove the purity of copper.要求学生们检验铜的纯度。
• Copper is a good medium for the conduction of heat and electricity.铜是热和电的良导体。

2 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

3 smelt   

v.熔解，熔炼；n.银白鱼，胡瓜鱼

参考例句：

• Tin is a comparatively easy metal to smelt.锡是比较容易熔化的金属。
• Darby was looking for a way to improve iron when he hit upon the idea of smelting it with coke instead of charcoal.达比一直在寻找改善铁质的方法，他猛然想到可以不用木炭熔炼，而改用焦炭。

4 relic   

n.神圣的遗物，遗迹，纪念物

参考例句：

• This stone axe is a relic of ancient times.这石斧是古代的遗物。
• He found himself thinking of the man as a relic from the past.他把这个男人看成是过去时代的人物。

5 ceramics   

n.制陶业；陶器

参考例句：

• an exhibition of ceramics by Picasso 毕加索陶瓷作品展
• The ceramics bore the imprint of Luca della Robbia. 陶器上印有卢卡·德拉·罗比亚的字样。

6 wares   

n. 货物, 商品

参考例句：

• They sold their wares at half-price. 他们的货品是半价出售的。
• The peddler was crying up his wares. 小贩极力夸耀自己的货物。

7 heyday   

n.全盛时期，青春期

参考例句：

• The 19th century was the heyday of steam railways.19世纪是蒸汽机车鼎盛的时代。
• She was a great singer in her heyday.她在自己的黄金时代是个了不起的歌唱家。

8 smelting   

n.熔炼v.熔炼，提炼（矿石）( smelt的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• a method of smelting iron 一种炼铁方法
• Fire provided a means of smelting ores. 火提供了熔炼矿石的手段。 来自辞典例句

9 revolves   

v.（使）旋转( revolve的第三人称单数 )；细想

参考例句：

• The earth revolves both round the sun and on its own axis. 地球既公转又自转。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• Thus a wheel revolves on its axle. 于是，轮子在轴上旋转。 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 geographic   

adj.地理学的，地理的

参考例句：

• The city's success owes much to its geographic position. 这座城市的成功很大程度上归功于它的地理位置。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Environmental problems pay no heed to these geographic lines. 环境问题并不理会这些地理界限。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法