DATONG, China — Yang Haiming didn’t cease working when he retired from the coal mines at age 60. As an alternative, he jumped into a brand new trade.
Yang is a part of a technology of employees that powered China’s development by digging coal from underground mines in Datong, a metropolis generally known as China’s coal capital within the northern province of Shanxi. Now, as China prioritizes renewable vitality over coal, Yang is forward of the change his fellow employees are being compelled to confront.
He now runs a restaurant that sells lamb skewers to vacationers visiting the Yungang Grottoes, a traditionally important sixth century web site that includes Buddhist carvings in caves that pulls tens of millions of tourists a yr.
Shanxi province could be the world’s bigger producer of coal if it have been its personal nation. Its roughly 800,000 miners dug 1.3 billion tons in 2025, or almost one-third of China’s coal. Just a few million extra individuals work in jobs that rely not directly on coal, starting from logistics to eating places. The province will see essential change as China provides renewable vitality so quick it coated virtually the entire nation’s development in energy demand final yr, and rising tourism is a significant objective.
Specialists say it is vital to verify coal employees don’t get left behind — a fear for a lot of.
“It doesn’t really feel like cash’s coming into this trade,” stated Zhou Hongfei, a coal miner.
As is typical for China’s state-owned enterprises, the coal firm constructed Yang’s village proper subsequent to the mine — referred to as No. 9 — that its residents would work. The place as soon as hummed with 1000’s of employees and their households, with a faculty, a day care and a sports activities heart. An elevated rail line passes by to hold coal to the remainder of the nation.
Nowadays, the No. 9 mine is usually a museum, although a piece remains to be being labored. The varsity is empty, its gates locked. Lots of the low-rise condo blocks are solely partially stuffed, usually not by miners however by individuals interested in low-cost housing.
Yang recollects affluent years earlier than surrounding villages have been dismantled.
“There have been so many individuals, particularly in the course of the New 12 months,” he stated. “It was crowded in all places. Now the bustling scenes have gone, and so has the sensation.”
Those that stayed behind, like Yang, have tried to capitalize on guests to the Yungang Grottoes. On a day when Related Press reporters visited, one retired coal miner walked the road hanging up conversations in hopes of bringing prospects to his noodle store. Largely aged individuals walked on the street, absorbing the solar.
Yang is within the minority of employees who’ve managed to make a transition.
There are lots of “who don’t know what to do, who say they don’t have the correct talent units for anybody else. All they know is to be a coal miner, or the simplest fallback choice is for them to return to farming,” stated Tom Wang, a Shanxi native, environmental activist and founding father of Folks of Asia for Local weather Options.
Zhou, 36, stated he thought of switching to tourism however didn’t understand how. And he worries about supporting his spouse and 8-year-old daughter.
“To essentially have the ability to make contact with after which change into a brand new trade may be very laborious, and the reality is, I don’t dare,” he stated. “In the event you go away this trade, you don’t know if it’ll work out. Can I adapt? And what if this finally ends up being a burden for my household?”
Mining wages rise and fall with demand. Earlier than Yang retired eight years in the past, he earned as much as 10,000 renminbi (about $1,450) in an excellent month. He stated he earns extra now from his restaurant.
The province is making an attempt to develop a number of different industries, from investing in coal-to-hydrogen tasks to selling its native “youmai,” a kind of oat utilized by locals to make a particular kind of noodles.
However Shanxi’s main focus and largest success for all times after coal has been tourism. Grasp Kan, who directs the Yungang Analysis Institute that oversees the grottoes and is a consultant within the Nationwide Folks’s Congress, final yr referred to as for accelerating growth of the tradition and tourism trade into “a strategic pillar” that “promotes individuals’s welfare” in Shanxi.
His remarks got here after the blockbuster online game Black Fable: Wukong, during which the lead character visits the grottoes and plenty of close by websites, precipitated a spike in guests. The quantity jumped to 4.5 million in 2024, up from 3 million the yr earlier than, in accordance with state media.
Yan Jiali, a tour information within the area, stated that increase has precipitated rising curiosity in jobs like hers, which requires a authorities take a look at to turn out to be licensed.
“Even my mother’s buddies would come ask me about taking this take a look at,” she stated.
Wang, the activist, is hoping that the high-tech industries that are actually the nation’s precedence will assist Shanxi’s transition by offering jobs. In any case, he stated, the province’s coal powered China’s transformation into an financial powerhouse.
“What if DeepSeek comes over to Shanxi and says, OK, we’ll begin an information heart right here? What if Baidu comes over to Shanxi?” he stated, referring to China’s homegrown tech firms.
Few suppose Shanxi can go away coal mines behind utterly. Specialists see coal as a important security web for China’s safety wants, and the Iran conflict has as soon as once more highlighted simply how weak vitality provide chains are to disruptions.
The federal government not too long ago declined to cap how a lot coal can be utilized, strolling again its dedication to progressively cut back coal consumption, in accordance with analysts on the Centre for Analysis on Vitality and Clear Air.
“The arrogance hasn’t grown to the purpose the place they’ll totally rely on renewable vitality,” stated Qi Qin, an analyst at CREA.
In reality, China has continued to construct out coal energy vegetation at an enormous scale, bringing on-line 78 gigawatts in 2025, greater than India did in an entire decade. One gigawatt can energy about 320,000 Chinese language households for a yr.
Even when demand would not fall, employees even have to fret that their mines will play out. A few of the older mines in Datong are close to the tip of their lives. When that occurs, employees may be reassigned to different mines that could be distant and pay much less.
One other coal mine employee, Xu, has taken a second job as a ride-share driver, spending about 5 hours a day behind the wheel after his day job ends. Xu — who declined to present his full title for concern of repercussions from the state-owned mine — stated he doubted that the advantages of the industries changing coal might be unfold evenly, whether or not it is tourism or renewable vitality.
“This tourism trade, how do I get in there?” he requested. “For Datong, those that can take pleasure in the advantages of this tourism increase, it’s largely the large resorts and possibly some eating places, noodle outlets, however what do you suppose common individuals can get?”
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