Background

Fanshan, located in Cangnan County, Wenzhou, near the border of Zhejiang and Fujian Province, has a rich history intertwined with alum mining. Named “World Alum Mining Town,” Fanshan has been a hub of alum mining and smelting for the past six hundred years. However, with technological advancements and shifts in the industrial market, the traditional alum mining industry has gradually declined, necessitating a transformative vision for Fanshan. Led by TLS in collaboration with PURE Architects and Cushman & Wakefield, a team has been formed to provide core area tourism planning, key area concept planning, and key project concept design for Fanshan.

Fanshan’s uniqueness lies in its profound history and culture. During its heyday, Fanshan Mining boasted 76 mining sites, over 200 mining teams, 5 alum smelting workshops, and 4 mining zones. The challenge now is to unveil Fanshan like an ore in a mining cave and revive the world alum mining town with thousands of years of history. 

Mining Caves Restoration

One of the most significant mining areas in Fanshan is Jilong Mountain caves. In our design approach, we have themed the Jilong Mountain caves around adventure and cultural tourism. Our innovative idea is to transform the Jilong Cave itself into an underground museum, referred to as the Capsule Museum. This dynamic and diverse system comprises numerous “exploration capsules,” which are renovated and curated small mining chambers scattered throughout the site. The larger chambers are renovated into various cultural, adventurous, or entertaining destinations according to its shape, size, and structure safety. Our work focuses on the 270-412 fragments, which is only a small portion of the whole Jilong Mountain Caves, but the Capsule Museum is growing and expandable in the future. A detailed phasing and investment analysis is also performed.

In this immersive subterranean experience, we incorporate cutting-edge lighting, projection, and XR technologies to enhance both storytelling and spatial perception. Projection mapping is used to reimagine the cave walls as living storybooks, displaying animated narratives of mining history, local folklore, and geological processes. Several chambers feature AR installations that allow visitors to overlay historical scenes, underground ecosystems, or digital reconstructions of the original mining equipment through their personal devices or AR glasses.

A series of specially curated capsules include underground mushroom farm, research lab of bioluminescent plants, underground camping site, XR archaeology site, interactive mining experience, and performance cave.