Except for the flocks of sheep, the only things moving in the yellowing, autumnal fields near Borxil town in Chen Barag Banner were several bulldozers, busily leveling the landscape.

The small town of less than 20,000 residents, in the middle of the Inner Mongolia autonomous region's northeastern region of Hulunbuir, remained tranquil until September 2012, when its name spread like a virus on websites and social networks in China and even overseas.

The sites focused on photos showing hundreds of collapsed mining pits on the vast grassland, with descriptions such as, "The Hulunbuir grassland has changed into a lunar surface."