“In one sense, things have improved in recent years. Once a scene from Dante’s hell–the few outsiders who visited sometimes described thousands upon thousands of half-naked men, women and children clawing into the rock in search of jade–the mining is now a largely mechanical process executed by industrial backhoes and dump trucks. A few mines still employ human diggers, and earlier this year one such site collapsed, killing 20.” [. . .]    —Daniel Pepper, The New York Times, October 4, 2008