From digging coal to selling noodles? China’s mining workers face change

DATONG, China (AP) — Yang Haiming didn’t stop working when he retired from coal mines at age 60. Instead, he jumped into a new industry.

Yang is part of a generation of workers who have powered China’s growth by extracting coal from underground mines in Datong, known as the coal capital in China’s northern province of Shanxi. Now that China is prioritizing renewable energy over coal, Yang is staying ahead of the change his fellow workers are forced to confront.

He now runs a restaurant selling lamb skewers to tourists visiting the Yungang Grottoes, a historically significant 6th-century site of Buddhist carvings in caves that attracts millions of visitors a year.

If Shanxi province were its own country, it would be the world’s largest coal producer. About 800,000 miners have mined 1.3 billion tonnes of coal in 2025, nearly a third of China’s coal. Several million more people work indirectly in jobs that rely on coal, from logistics to restaurants. As China, there will be a significant change in the state adds renewable energy so fast that it accounted for almost all of the growth in the country’s electricity demand last year, and growing tourism is an important goal.

Experts say it is vital to ensure coal workers are not left behind; This is a worrying situation for many people.

“There is no feeling that there will be money coming into this sector,” said coal miner Zhou Hongfei.

Evolution of the coal town

The coal company built Yang’s village, where residents would work, right next to mine No. 9, as is the case with China’s state-owned enterprises. Once filled with thousands of workers and their families, this place now has a school, a nursery and a sports centre. An elevated railway line runs to transport coal to the rest of the country.

Nowadays, mine number 9 is mostly used as a museum, although part of it is still being worked on. The school is empty, its doors are locked. Most low-rise apartment blocks are usually only partially occupied not by miners but by people interested in cheap housing.

Yang remembers the prosperous years before the dissolution of the surrounding villages.

“There were so many people, especially on New Year’s Day,” he said. “Everywhere was crowded. Now the lively scenes are gone and that feeling is gone too.”

Those who stayed behind, like Yang, tried to take advantage of the visitors to the Yungang Caves. On a day when Associated Press reporters visited, a retired coal miner was walking down the street and striking up conversations in hopes of bringing customers to his noodle shop. Mostly old people walked on the street, soaking up the sun.

Transition to tourism is difficult

Yang is one of the minority of workers who managed to make the transition.

“There are a lot of people who don’t know what to do, who say they don’t have the right skills for others. All they know is to be a coal miner, or the easiest fallback option for them is to go back to farming,” said Tom Wang, a Shanxi native, environmental activist and founder of Asian People for Climate Solutions.

Zhou, 36, said he was considering switching to tourism but did not know how. He worries about taking care of his wife and 8-year-old daughter.

“It’s very difficult to actually connect with a new industry and then transition into it, and the truth is I don’t have the courage to do it,” he said. “If you leave this industry, you don’t know if things will work out. Can I fit in? What if it becomes a burden on my family?”

Mining fees rise and fall with demand. Before retiring eight years ago, Yang was earning 10,000 renminbi (about $1,450) in a good month. He said he now earns more from his restaurant.

The province is trying to develop a variety of alternative industries, from investing in coal-to-hydrogen projects to introducing local “youmai”, a type of oats used by locals to make a special type of noodles.

However, after coal, Shanxi’s main focus and biggest achievement in life was tourism. Hang Kan, who runs the Yungang Research Institute, which oversees the caves, and is a representative at the National People’s Congress, last year called for accelerating the development of the culture and tourism industry into a “strategic pillar” in Shanxi that “promotes people’s well-being.”

These words come after the blockbuster video game Dark Legend: Wukong, The film, in which the main character visits the caves and many nearby places, caused an increase in the number of visitors. This number increased from 3 million the previous year to 4.5 million in 2024, according to state media.

Yan Jiali, a tour guide in the area, said the boom has led to increased interest in businesses like his, which require a government exam to get a license.

“Even my mother’s friends would come and ask me about taking this exam,” he said.

Activist Wang says high-tech industries now the nation’s priority will help Shanxi’s transition by providing jobs. Ultimately, he said, the province’s coal is powering China’s transformation into an economic powerhouse.

“What if DeepSeek comes to Shanxi and says, okay, we’ll build a data center here? What if Baidu comes to Shanxi?” he said, referring to China’s domestic technology companies.

Coal remains important

Few people think Shanxi can leave its coal mines behind entirely. Experts see coal as follows: a critical safety net For China’s security needs and Iran war once again highlighted how vulnerable energy supply chains are causes disruptions.

government recently refused to put limits on how much coal It could be used by abandoning the commitment to phase out coal consumption, according to analysts at the Center for Energy and Clean Air Research.

“Confidence has not increased to the point where they can be completely dependent on renewable energy,” said Qi Qin, an analyst at CREA.

In fact, China continued to build coal-fired power plants on a large scale. It will bring 78 gigawatts online by 2025More than India has done in a decade. One gigawatt can power approximately 320,000 Chinese households for a year.

Workers also have to worry that their mines will run out, even if demand doesn’t drop. Some of the old mines in Datong are nearing the end of their useful life. In such a case, workers may be assigned to other distant mines and paid less.

Xu, another coal miner, took a second job as a rideshare driver and spent about 5 hours a day behind the wheel after his day job was over. Xu, who declined to give his full name for fear of repercussions from the state-owned mine, said he doubted the benefits of industries replacing coal, whether tourism or renewable energy, would be evenly distributed.

“This is the tourism industry, how do I get into it?” he asked. “For Datong, those taking advantage of this tourism boom are mostly big hotels, maybe some restaurants and noodle shops, but what do you think ordinary people can buy?”

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