DATONG, China (AP) — Yang Haiming didn’t stop working after retiring from coal mining at the age of 60. Instead, he ventured into a new industry.
Yang is part of a generation of workers digging coal from underground mines in Datong, a city in the northern province of Shanxi known as China’s coal capital. Now, as China prioritizes renewable energy over coal, Yang is at the forefront of the changes his colleagues are being forced to face.
He now runs a restaurant that sells lamb skewers to tourists visiting the Yungang Grottoes, historically significant six-century-old caves featuring Buddhist carvings that attract millions of visitors a year.
Shaanxi province would be the world’s largest coal producer if it were its own country. Its roughly 800,000 miners will mine 1.3 billion tons in 2025, or about a third of China’s coal. A few million more people work in jobs indirectly dependent on coal, from logistics to restaurants. The province will see significant change as China adds renewable energy so fast that it covered nearly all of the nation’s energy demand last year, and growing tourism is a key target.
Experts say it’s important to ensure coal workers aren’t left behind — a concern for many.
“It doesn’t seem like money is coming into this industry,” said coal miner Zhou Hongfei.
Development of Coal City
As is typical for China’s state-owned enterprises, the coal company built the village of Yang next to the mine — called No. 9 — where residents would work. The place once hummed with thousands of workers and their families, with a school, day care and sports centre. There is an overhead rail line to transport coal to the rest of the country.
Nowadays, No. 9 Mine is mostly a museum, although a section is still being worked on. The school is empty, the door is closed. Many of the low-rise apartment blocks are only partially filled, often not by miners but by people attracted to cheap housing.
Yang remembers the prosperous years before the surrounding villages were demolished.
“There were a lot of people, especially on New Year’s Day,” he said. “There were crowds everywhere. Now the bustling scenes are gone, and so is the feeling.”
Those who stayed behind, like Yang, tried to take advantage of the visitors to the Yungang Grottoes. One day when Associated Press reporters visited, a retired coal miner walked the streets, striking up conversations in hopes of bringing customers to his noodle shop. Most of the old people walked the streets basking in the sun.
Converting to tourism is difficult
Yang is among the minority of workers who have successfully made the transition.
There are many “who don’t know what to do, who say they don’t have the right skill set for anyone else. They know the easiest option for them is to become a coal miner, or to go back to farming,” said Tom Wang, a Shanxi resident, environmental activist and founder of People of Asia for Climate Solutions.
Zhou, 36, said he thought about switching to tourism but didn’t know how. And he worries about supporting his wife and 8-year-old daughter.
“It’s very difficult to actually connect and be able to switch to a new industry, and the truth is, I wouldn’t dare,” he said. “If you leave this industry, you don’t know if it will work. Can I adapt? And what if it becomes a burden on my family?”
Miners rise and fall with demand. Yang earned 10,000 renminbi (about $1,450) in a good month before retiring eight years ago. He said that now he earns a lot from the restaurant.
The province is trying to develop a variety of alternative industries, from investing in coal to hydrogen projects to promoting the indigenous “yumai” of oats, which locals use to make a special type of noodle.
But Shanxi’s main focus and biggest success in life after coal is tourism. Hong Kan, director of the Yungang Research Institute that oversees the grottoes and a representative to the National People’s Congress, last year called for speeding up the development of the culture and tourism industry in Shanxi, a strategic pillar of “promoting people’s welfare.”
His comments came after the blockbuster video game Black Myth: Wukong, in which the main character visits grottoes and many nearby sites, has increased the number of visitors. The number is expected to reach 4.5 million in 2024, up from 3 million the previous year, according to state media.
Yan Jiali, a tour guide in the area, said the boom has increased interest in jobs like his, which require a government test to obtain a license.
“Even my mother’s friends would come to ask me about taking this test,” she said.
Activist Wang hopes that high-tech industries, which are now the nation’s priority, will help Shanxi’s transition by providing jobs. After all, he said, the province’s coal has transformed China into an economic powerhouse.
“What if DeepSeek comes to Shanxi and says, OK, we’re going to start a data center here? What if Baidu comes to Shanxi?” He said in reference to China’s domestic technology companies.
Coal remains important
Few think that Shanxi can leave the coal mines behind entirely. Experts see coal as a critical safety net for China’s security needs, and the war in Iran has again highlighted how vulnerable energy supply chains are to disruptions.
According to analysts at the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air, the government recently refused to cap how much coal can be used, walking back its commitment to gradually reduce coal consumption.
“Confidence has not grown enough that they can fully rely on renewable energy,” said Qi Qin, an analyst at CREA.
Indeed, China continues to build large-scale coal power plants, bringing 78 gigawatts online by 2025, more than India has done in a decade. One gigawatt can power about 320,000 Chinese households for a year.
Even if demand does not fall, workers are worried about leaving their mines. Some of Datong’s older mines are nearing the end of their lives. When that happens, workers may be reassigned to other mines that may be farther away and pay less.
Sue, another coal miner, has taken a second job as a ride share driver, spending about 5 hours a day behind the wheel after his day job. Su – who declined to give his full name for fear of fallout from the state-owned mine – said the benefits of industries replacing coal would be spread evenly, whether it’s tourism or renewable energy.
“This tourism industry, how do I get there?” he asked. “For Datong, who can take advantage of this tourism boom, it’s mostly big hotels and maybe some restaurants, noodle shops, but what do you think regular people can get?”
___ The Associated Press’s climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from several private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with charities, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.
