From digging coal to selling noodles? Chinas mining workers face change

DATONG, China — Yang Haiming didn’t stop working when he retired from the coal mines at age 60. Instead, he jumped into a new industry. Yang is part of a generation of workers that powered China’s growth by digging coal from underground mines in Datong, a city known as China’s coal capital in the northern province of Shanxi. Now, as China prioritizes renewable energy over coal, Yang is ahead of the change his fellow workers are being forced to confront. He now runs a restaurant that sells lamb skewers to tourists visiting the Yungang Grottoes, a historically significant 6th century site featuring Buddhist carvings in caves that draws millions of visitors a year. Shanxi province would be the world’s larger producer of coal if it were its own country. Its roughly 800,000 miners dug 1.3 billion tons in 2025, or nearly one-third of China’s coal. A few million more people work in jobs that rely indirectly on coal, ranging from logistics to restaurants. The province will see crucial change as China adds renewable energy so fast it covered almost all of the nation’s growth in power deman

Read Full Article