From coal mine to film production base, a small county's transition

NANCHANG, Feb. 20 (Xinhua) -- In Hengfeng, a small county in east China's Jiangxi Province, locals have a new way of greeting each other -- "Have you applied for the film acting role?"

This greeting comes after a movie has been recently confirmed to be produced in the county, along with plans to recruit more than 400 figurants. Many nearby villagers have been attracted to apply.

Local villager Ke Xiufa, 67, has been a figurant three times.

"I can earn 100 yuan (about 14 U.S. dollars) plus three meals a day, excluding the overtime pay," said Ke, adding that more than 40 villagers like him acted on the very first day when the movie started shooting.

The county's film and television program production base has been developed on a former coal mine site.

The mine built in 1958 witnessed declining production and financial losses after its peak production period in the 1990s. Last year, the site with a deserted colliery, a 5-km railway line for coal transportation, along with vacant offices and dormitories, was included in a provincial-level industrial heritage.

Located at the east end of Jiangxi, Hengfeng County is near Hengdian, a film and television program production center known as "China's Hollywood" in the neighboring Zhejiang Province.

"Many tourism and film and TV play production companies favored our beautiful ecological environment and well-preserved industrial heritage, which strengthened our determination to build a base for film and television program production here," said Pan Li, Party chief of the county.

Two years ago, a Zhejiang-based cultural company invested 200 million yuan to turn the former coal mine into three filming locations in three different historical settings, developing a comprehensive base for both film and TV play production and tourism.

Gan Xiaoer, a director producing a movie there, said he was thrilled to see many kinds of old trains that can move inside the base, achieving an ideal shooting effect.

"The scenes of moving vintage trains are rare at other shooting venues in China. The breathtaking rural landscape is also perfect for movie shooting," said Gan.

The base has also injected vitality into rural revitalization, bringing additional income to locals.

Since last November, the base has received five camera crew teams, with more than 3,000 figurants hired among local villagers, said Zhou Zhongliang in charge of the base's operation.

"Another five shooting teams have reserved the venues in the first half of this year, demanding more than 30,000 temporary actors in total," said Zhou.