Gejiu

Gejiu, city, southern Yunnan sheng (province), China. It lies near the Vietnamese border and is the site of China’s most important tin-mining operation.

Gejiu was originally a small mining settlement called Gejiuli; mining of silver was begun there under the Yuan (1206–1368) and Ming (1368–1644) dynasties. Mining in Yunnan boomed in the late 17th and 18th centuries, but tin mining in Gejiu did not develop until the second half of the 18th century. In the 1880s the city was created a subprefecture under Mengzi county, about 19 miles (30 km) to the east. In 1889 Mengzi was opened as a treaty port, its trade being almost entirely with Hanoi and Haiphong in what was then French Indochina. One of the main purposes in constructing the French-built railway from Haiphong to Kunming (Yunnan), completed in 1910, was to service the mines. A branchline was built from Gejiu to Mengzi between 1915 and 1928. During the last years of the Qing dynasty (1644–1911/12), the mines were organized by the Chinese-owned Gejiu Tin Company, but the company was deficient in capital, technical skill, and managerial efficiency and was replaced by a joint state-private company, the Gejiu Tin-Mining Company, under which production boomed. By the 1930s Gejiu tin accounted for 80 percent of the traffic exported on the railway. Tin production is said to have reached 10,000 tons in 1938.

After 1949 management passed to the state Yunnan Tin-Mining Corporation, which by 1955 had reached and surpassed prewar production figures. In addition to mining tin, which remains the chief product, Gejiu has also become a major producer of lead, and a thriving metallurgical industry has been developed. Tin articles made in Gejiu are highly acclaimed in China. Coal for smelting is supplied to the city from nearby Kaiyuan to the north, located on the rail line to Kunming. There is some engineering and chemical production closely allied with Gejiu’s metallurgical industries. Pop. (2002 est.) 218,652.