The grubby, ramshackle clinic for injured miners is hidden away like a guilty secret at the end of a dirt track in a village near Datong, Shanxi province, China's coal capital. Outside, Zhu Jiaching hobbles along on crutches and speaks through broken teeth about the day last September when luck was on his side.
'I was working underground when the scaffolding collapsed on me. My legs were broken and my teeth were smashed when I fell face down into the coal.' He points to his black and swollen upper lip. 'I still have pieces of coal lodged in here.'
Zhu was carried unconscious out of the mine. He was one of the lucky ones. Last year, 4,000 mainland miners were killed in underground accidents. 'A fortnight after my accident, there was another scaffolding collapse in the same stretch of mine,' the 39-year-old father of two says with a grimace. 'Four miners were killed. All were from my home province.'
With no salary and only hospital meals to live off, Zhu is waiting to be well enough to return to his wife and children hundreds of miles away. 'The mine manager came to see me a few weeks after my accident and offered me 10,000 yuan [HK$11,390] compensation if I took the money and went straight home,' he says.
'I refused. At the time I couldn't even walk.
'The manager left and hasn't been back. He won't discuss the matter and I've been living in the hospital ever since. I want him to pay for the treatment to repair my broken teeth and give me proper compensation - then I'll go home for good.'
In nearby Ganzhong village, Wan Mingyong, 35, smokes and chats with friends as he waits to begin his eight-hour underground shift. Luck was on his side too when, in another privately run coal mine in May last year, a wall of coal exploded in his face. Wan's face and neck are still peppered with tiny lumps of coal.