This Day, That Year

Item from Jan 15, 1987, in China Daily: Peng Qi (far right), contract worker of the Meng Rui Hutong Coal and Firewood Store in western Beijing, has become the "most popular worker" in the neighborhood for delivering coal briquettes to residents' doors on time, even in the recent windy and snowy conditions.

Briquettes were the major source of heating in China before the 1990s. Residents cozied up to the warmth from the honeycomb-like blocks but the inconvenience of transporting and burning the coal was also a big disadvantage.

With simple fossil-fueled stoves evolving into electric heaters and radiators in the past decades, briquettes and their deliverymen are now a rare sight in Chinese cities, especially modern metropolises such as Beijing.