Yunhe village sits atop a major iron ore deposit on Taer Mountain and has boasted a thriving economy in recent years. At the foot of the village stands an archway decorated with peony paintings and dragon sculptures, symbols of wealth and power in this rural area.
Over the years, the community has basked in greater prosperity: villagers liberated the ox from the plough and changed to machinery to do the farm work; elderly farmers gained access to medical insurance and retirement benefits; and free education and the trappings of modernity - like broadband internet - were enjoyed by the young.
Those higher up the economic ladder began sending their children to Europe and drove around in SUVs, while even the less well off could put up a satellite dish and watch the Beijing Olympics on a flat-screen TV.
But, on the morning of September 8, disaster struck their rural idyll. As grandparents filled a fitness centre, schoolboys hurried for a Monday exam and a weekly market opened for trade, the mine tailings reservoir - full of iron ore waste - which had hovered above the village for two decades, collapsed.
More than a million tonnes of waste swept down into the market, on through the village and 3km downhill, causing massive destruction as it went. So far, the remains of more than 250 people have been found and the death toll is still rising.
The survivors are expecting a cold, hopeless winter. Not only have they lost relatives, neighbours and friends, many have lost homes and they must do without farmland and mining - their main sources of income. Some villagers see supernatural forces at work.