History fuels boom in old city

Modern makeover

Fast-forward to the modern era, and the city once heavily reliant on coal mining has diversified its industrial mix by embracing cleaner industries, including modern medicines, general aviation, new materials, new energy and, above all, the cultural and tourism industry.

Since the People's Republic of China was founded in 1949, Datong has produced over 3 billion metric tons of coal. However, heavy pollution was one inconvenient byproduct of mining.

Yuan Xiaozhong remembers that the city was once so woefully polluted that locals joked that the Buddha sculptures in the grottoes were draped in black cassocks.

The city embarked on the protection and renovation of its cultural heritage, as well as an environmental face-lift. Over the past decade, the share of the non-coal industry in its industrial mix has risen by 10 percentage points.

From 2012 to 2019, aggregate revenues of Datong's tourism industry skyrocketed from 16.28 billion yuan ($2.28 billion) to 76.21 billion yuan, and the number of tourist visits rose from 18.9 to 83.97 million.

Today, a coal mine across the river from the grottoes has been retrofitted into a coal-themed national park, where visitors are shuttled in carts 150 meters underground, clad in mining uniforms, to learn about the 140-million-year-old fossil fuel.

Wei Min is the 23-year-old daughter of a miner and now works in the park as an in-house tour guide.

"I am working in the same place as my father, but in a totally different capacity," she said.