A smell of coal, and tension in the air: cold comfort for a Chinese city built on mines
An elderly man limps into a hotel bathhouse on crutches. It is cold outside, even by Heilongjiang’s standards. Even so, the price is enough to turn him back.
“The entrance fee is 14 yuan (HK$17) but I know somewhere two blocks away that charges only 7 yuan,” he explains.
Bathhouses can be found in most hotels in Shuangyashan city of Heilongjiang province. Alongside mahjong, they are one of the favourite pastimes of locals in northeastern China as they suffer through the long, harsh winters.
Shuangyashan is one of the ten largest mining cities in China. Situated in the northeast of the province, its street signs are in both Chinese and Russian.
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The smell of coal and the sound of train whistles fill the air of this small city, which has a downtown area consisting of just three streets.
The main street, Xinxing Dajie, houses the buildings of the Shuangyashan Mining Industry Group and the city government, an upmarket shopping mall, hotels and a train station. The other two comprise rundown, smaller buildings erected in the 1990s.
Even days after the protests by the miners, there is a heavy police presence. Command vehicles and coaches park outside the mining authority to prevent crowds from gathering.
Tension is in the air for this once laid back city. Uniformed special police officers patrol the narrow streets and alleys.
“If the mining and steel industries collapse, life won’t be possible anymore in Shuangyashan. There is no other industry foundation here,” says a Jianshan district resident, 54.
“All the young people work elsewhere, no one wants to stay here. There is no prospect in mining anymore,” she continues, adding that more than half of city’s 1.5 million population work in mining and related state-owned corporations.
The city is surrounded by mines, owned by both the state and private businessmen, that are struggling to survive.
Mining workers had been owed months of pay until a recent protest brought their plight to a nationwide audience.
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Adverse economic conditions have sent shockwaves through the city that are felt at every level of society.
A driver who once made around 7,000 yuan (HK$8,340) a month by driving mine workers around town says his income has been cut in half in the past two years.
Even during lunch hours, the local food centre on Dongpingxing Road is empty. In the evenings, downtown bars and karaoke venues are closed and shops lie vacant.
A Korean waitress in her 40s says it was uncommon to see a waitress her age during the good days.
“Local restaurants only used to hire people under 30 but these days they take people my age too,” she says. As mining workers’ pay has been cut, so has her mother’s widow allowance.
“It was only 200 yuan a month – she was entitled to it as my late father used to be a miner,” she said.
A worker, 36, at a water purification factory owned by Shuangyashan mining, says he was owed seven months’ wages last year before the miners protested on the street.
“We finally got our salary back after the protest, but it was subjected to a 20 per cent pay cut so I only got 1,200 yuan a month.
“This is the level of the average salary in Shuangyashan but I am only able to support myself,” he says.
He works as a black market driver to make ends meet, while his daughter is raised by his parents, who receive pensions of 2,000 yuan a month each.
“Pensioners are the only people who are doing well in Shuangyashan,” he says. “The money they receive is funded by the social security system, whereas our income comes from the mining corporation.”
