Daily Life in China                  

Chinese Coal Mining:

   Mining is done in various ways.  In Henan and Shanxi it is done at hundreds of small mines.  There will be one shack which covers a tunnel entrance to a dug mine and standing winch which lifts the coal out of the mine. At least that's the type I saw.  (Pictures of this type at bottom).   Here in Hunan I have not seen that type. 

   In central Hunan there are large open mines like the one shown here.  This one started as a pit which is now filled in with water.  Close by there's another pit which is about 300 meters deep and will eventually be filled in with water.  The mountain is dug away and the coal extracted.  The dirt is piled close by making a small mountain, taken to the city as fill where needed or backfilled into the water filled pit.

   The coal is low grade and quite poisonous but the demand for it is very high.  Energy shortages and outages have been forecast all over China for the next few years due to lack of energy.  This coal will drive local factories, power generators and is used extensively for individual apartment heating and cooking.  

   The smell of burning coal (gas) is pervasive in the city restaurants.  When you walk along some of the restaurants your eyes will sting from the coal gas. 

   The raw coal is taken to many loading stations close to the mine.  The trucks back up to the top of the loading area and dump the coal over the edge.  It's then shoveled into a crusher to make a powder.  The workers at the bottom close to the truck shovel the crushed coal into the truck.  There are probably many uses for the crushed coal but one is for making the coal used in the cooking pots.  (Pictures posted previously).

    People buy a load of coal and have it dropped at their house.  They then add some sand and water to make a thick mud slurry.  The slurry is shaped into the "coals" used for the cooking pots which most of the restaurants and home kitchens use.  A farmer can make a few extra dollars by ordering a truckload, spend a few days making coal pot "coals" and sell them in the city.   There are about 30 coal stations like the one below leading to the mine and others off offshoot roads.  There are 100's of people at the city edge getting loads of coal and making "coals" for the coal stoves.  Note: the coal stoves are small metal cylinders lined with something like a cement resistant coating a few inches thick with a single air inlet at the bottom.  The stove is turned on and off by removing a cover from the air inlet.  These types of stoves are used everywhere from the home to modern just built restaurants.  The school's new cafeteria has about 20 open coal stoves and 2 natural gas burners.  At times the air in the cafeteria is not so nice.

This man is making coal cakes that are used for cooking and heating.  There are generally two sizes, this one and one about half as big used in smaller stoves.

Below is the new cafeteria kitchen.  The stoves use coal cakes.  The stove is a brick structure with fire brick lined positions to hold the coal cakes.  The temperature is controlled by the flu's at the sides of the stove.  In Chinese cooking the stove is either at idle, cover on, or very hot, cover off.

Small coal mines dot the landscape in the coal regions of Hubei, Henan, Shanxi and other provinces.  They are all similar.  There is a motor under the tall structure to pull up a metal line which runs down into the mine.  The line in this picture runs from the top of the structure to the building in the foreground which covers the mine shaft A zillion small coal mines add up.  These small mines don't have much space for storage so trucks are are constantly coming into the area taking away coal.