Located at less than 350 kilometers at the west of Beijing, the town of Datong is known to give an industrial prolongation to the coal basin – the most important one in China – from which it is the principal center.
500 000 minors are employed in the area. Many lives and works in these coal-mining cities which gather 40 000 inhabitants for some of them. Others also work in tens of thousands of small private mines, often illegal and in the conditions of precarious safety.