Speaking of Africa, there is no escape from the two words "poor" and "rich".
It is easy to say that africa is poor, because most of Africa is still a third world country, and with the backward level of technology, people in many places are so poor that they can't even eat.
And "rich" means that under this vast African continent, there are still many natural treasures buried deeply, including crazy gold.
gold mine
In West Africa, there is a country called Ghana, the main goods exported by this country are gold, cocoa, timber, etc., and the export of gold alone is enough to see the number of gold mines contained in this country, so Ghana is also known as the "Gold Coast".
The proven gold reserves are about 980 tons, and the country that holds such a huge amount of gold should be rich in theory, but in fact, due to various factors, this country is not rich, and even until 1994, the United Nations canceled the title of "least developed country".
It is precisely because of this that many foreigners have slowly learned about the business opportunities here, and have come to this land, hoping to rely on the gold earned here by technology and means to become rich and wealthy, among which there is no lack of Chinese.
The first batch of Chinese who went to Ghana to pan for gold came from Heilongjiang Province, and then a group of Ghanaian gold diggers appeared in Hunan Province. And the one who really sits in the top spot in this industry and is rich and wealthy is the "Shanglin Gang" who came later. The reason why they are called "Shanglin Gang" does not mean that they are a special gang organization, but that they come from the same place, Shanglin County, Guangxi Province.
Shanglin Gang
In 2005, there was a story circulating in Shanglin, Guangxi, that a fellow villager in Shanglin, with his entire wealth totaling more than 5 million yuan, rushed to Ghana to pan for gold, and in three years, the five million was doubled 20 times, and the fellow became a real rich man.
Such news is fermented in the place where everyone is eager to get rich, and no one is not crazy about it, and no one cares whether this person exists or not, because such a story alone is attractive enough. For a time, groups of Shanglin people rushed to the distant African Ghana, just to make themselves one of the stories.
Slowly, more legends spread from Ghana to China, some Shanglin people returned from Ghana, the greeting gift to relatives was gold bricks, and some Shanglin people booked luxury cars and mansions before the plane landed, and this pile and piece by piece are constantly stimulating one after another people who want to make a fortune in that land.
And there are constant rumors that there are many people who have returned from Ghana who are worth more than 100 million, and the local government said in an interview that it is true that Shanglin went to Ghana to pan for gold, but the situation of being worth more than 100 million is not known whether it is true.
Shanglin helped pan for gold
In the world, some people have discovered the secrets of Ghana early, the United Kingdom, the United States and other countries have arrived here as early as many years ago, starting their own factories, their factories are mostly based on rock gold, the mining of this gold mine, the need for the help of large equipment, and thanks to the early development of science and technology, the British, American and other countries of the ore enterprises can gain a firm foothold in Ghana.
In addition to rock gold, there is also a large amount of placer gold distributed on the beaches of Ghana, because of the special location, can not be mined with large machines, so britain, the United States and other countries do not take placer gold as a target for mining.
The local technology in Ghana is relatively backward, and most of the locals use manual methods to mine and move placer gold, which is very inefficient, which gives the "Shanglin Gang" the opportunity to pan for gold and get rich.
In 2005. Shanglin people came to Ghana with a unique sand pump technology, which can mine gold sand on the beach in Ghana, which is very efficient, a sand pump can mine an average of about 100 grams of gold a day, and a placer gold will place two sand pumps at the same time, and the income obtained every day is very considerable.
Most of the gold mined by the Shanglin people was sold to merchants elsewhere, who then brought the gold to the international market, thus forming a complete trading chain.
Gold trading chain
At the same time, in terms of mining, the Shanglin people still have their own technical monopoly, although they brought the technology to Ghana, but the assembly and use of sand pumps are still firmly in the hands of the Shanglin people themselves, and there is no transmission, only the Shanglin people themselves understand these methods. Therefore, there is a saying in the local area that "non-Shanglin people do not organize machines".
Regarding foreigners going to Ghana to pan for gold, ghanaian locals have two very different attitudes, the first is supporters, who feel that Ghanaians can benefit from these gold diggers and learn from each other, so their attitude towards foreign gold prospectors is more friendly.
And there are some opponents, they consider this matter from the perspective of the state, ecology, nature, they feel that foreigners come here, in their land to exploit the resources that originally belonged to them, and after mining, only the devastation is left everywhere, and the overexploited resources and land, as well as polluted rivers, this is a huge problem, so they are not particularly welcome for foreigners to exploit this matter.
Nevertheless, the Shanglin people have also formed a certain degree of population agglomeration in some parts of Ghana, and in the places where they gather, a series of facilities that are in line with Chinese life have been built, common such as Chinese restaurants, hotels, and even KTV and other entertainment facilities.
Some Shanglin people go to Ghana and choose to stay in the local area to marry and have children, and live there for the rest of their lives.
Ghanaian
Of course, the "Shanglin Gang" gold rush in Ghana was not easy, and some people even took their lives for it.
The first thing they have to face is the gunfire of the bandits. In Ghana, the incidence of robberies against gold diggers is not low. Local robbers were often well-armed and well armed with ammunition.
They came in droves to the gold diggers' sites, looted them by artillery fire, and if the gold diggers did not cooperate with them, they would not skimp on ammunition.
Hu Hongshi, a gold miner in Shanglin, said: "The survival of a foreign country is first of all to save one's life, and wealth is secondary." "On his site, there are often 200 grams of gold, which are not traded, because when the robbers come, this is everyone's life-saving money.
bandit
So for safety, the Shanglin people in Ghana often live together in several engineering teams and can take care of each other. When selling gold, everyone also raises funds to hire local bodyguards to escort them, but even so, sometimes compatriots will die in this place where wealth and crisis coexist.
Slowly, many engineering teams began to prepare their own guns, and they also had a certain ability to fight back and deterrence in the face of smaller numbers of robbers.
malaria
And in Ghana, even more terrifying than the robbers is malaria. This infectious disease, caused by the malaria parasite, is not uncommon on the African continent. Because there is no place for medical treatment around many engineering teams, infected patients cannot seek medical treatment in time, and some gold diggers have been taken away by this infectious disease and buried their dreams of wealth and a life in a distant foreign country.
In addition, many Shanglin people go to Ghana to pan for gold on tourist visas rather than work visas, which leads to frequent visits by the local immigration office, and they face the risk of being deported back to their country.
It can be seen that the local gold panning life in Ghana is not as safe and calm as imagined, but it has to face many dangers. But this still does not prevent groups of Shanglin people from crossing the ocean to distant Africa to pursue their golden dreams.
Since ancient times, there have been gold diggers in all dynasties, and gold is the most valuable item, which is deeply loved by people around the world, which has created an unrivaled honorable status of gold. However, as a non-renewable resource, there are countless tragedies and tragedies caused by competition in history.
The same is true of today's "Shanglin Gang", some people take out all their belongings, go to the distant African continent, and use their youth and time to realize their golden dreams there.
And some people have the same dream, but only get a pile of loess there, can't help but sigh, the temptation of gold is so great, just ask if there is the same opportunity in front of them, how many people will not be moved?