Water well drilling in rural China is conducted in a variety of ways. The most common wells are dug by hand, some to considerable depth. Hand dug wells are typically from one to two meters in diameter, although it is not uncommon to encounter wells of larger diameters. Older hand dug wells are usually lined with cut stone. Red brick is commonly used today. Brick and stone are usually stacked and not cemented, allowing water to be able to seep into the well. These large wells are rarely sealed and hence the water purity and sanitation is low. When wells are dug by hand, they are usually dug through clay to bed rock when possible. It is common to find a thin layer of rock or gravel laying on top of the bed rock and this zone usually provides the majority or all of the water available. These wells usually produce limited amounts of water as the clay is largely impervious to the free flow of water. Typically, well depths can vary from several to 100M or so.

The use of drilled wells is increasing, but is still limited. Drilled well diameters are typically in the range of 0.3M or so. Percussion (also called hammer or cable tool rigs) are typically used. By far, the most common drilling tool is a heavy steel tube with a cutting edge that is repeatedly dropped into the clay cutting the material and facilitating easy removal. Well drilling using this method is usually very fast with wells often being completed in a single day, including installing cement pipe as a well casing. These wells are almost always drilled till bed rock is reached. The rate of water production is usually not high.

Drilling into bedrock in search of water bearing cracks and fissures, as is common in many areas in other parts of the world, seems to be unknown here and there is little interest in pursuing such practice at this time. The author believes that this could be a significant source of high purity water in significant volumes at many locations, but the skill and drilling tools needed to drill such wells is not commonly available at this time.

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