Modern life arriving slowly for Tongmei's generations of coal miners

The heat in the Tongmei Hotel was so high that I could not fall asleep, even after opening all the windows on a cold winter night.

I called the front desk at midnight and asked if they could turn down the temperature. A sleepy voice told me impatiently: "Just turn on the air conditioner. The air conditioner is used to cool the room during the winter here."

That is the simple logic of life in Tongmei, which produced 6 percent of global coal output - energy is cheap, while life can be lost at any moment.