Overview

Benxi is a well known city of coal and iron and an important raw material industrial base in China.

Benxi is richly endowed by nature, reputed as “There are many money-spinners on the mountains and a goldmine under the ground”.

Now, verified underground mineral resources are over 50 and the exploitation value is very high. It has become an industrial city covering extensive fields keeping steel and iron and building materials remaining dominant as well as allowing heavy industry and light industry to develop harmoniously. It is a famous city of coal and iron.

The connotation of “Benxi’

The name “benxi” is from Benxi Lake in the city. The lake is less than 15 square meters and I am afraid that it is the smallest lake in the world. The lake is small, but it is something of the celebrated, listed in the Ten Scenic Spots of Guandong. In the reign of Tongzhi in the Qing Dynasty a celebrity named Gaoshen Xian inscribed “Benxi Lake in Liaodong” on a gigantic stone situated in the mouth of the lake. Beside the lake, an ancient temple-Chihang Temple was built at the end of the Ming Dynasty, with singing in praise of the Buddha and burning incenses being all the rage at the moment. The lake is surrounded by peaks, its external part is wide but its internal part is narrow, obviously it looks like a wine-glass made of rhinoceros horn. So it was called “Beixi Lake” at that time, and it sounded like “Benxi Lake”. From then on, the name of the lake became the name of the city.