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Jincheng, a town in northern China's Shanxi province, has made noticeable efforts to improve its environment by curbing its polluting industries, but it hasn't completely cleaned up the mess.
Mr. Gao, a local shepherd who tends a flock of sheep blackened by the soot from nearby coal mines and plants that have since closed, said that things have improved in recent years.
"Before, it all used to burn and stink. Everything was polluted. It burned and stank." said Gao.
Despite efforts to close dozens of local collieries and chemical plants, the city still failed to meet environmental targets set by the central government.
The city came short of meeting its target of cutting concentrations of lung-damaging PM2.5 particles by 10 percent last winter, and recorded 1,819 pollution violations, the most of the 28 cities.
After it was ranked the worst performer among 28 northern cities forced to impose special pollution measures, its mayor was summoned to Beijing in April to come up with an explanation.
While he admitted embarrassment, he told officials that the pollution cuts were hurting the city's economy.
Despite obvious measures taken to clean up the city's coal operation, such as putting roofs over polluting coal mines, the legacy of the industry has sunk deeply into the lives of residents.
Zhang Haibin, a 44-year old farmer living in a largely abandoned hamlet on the edge of a defunct coal deposit, said that despite the closure of the nearby mines, his house is literally falling apart.
"(Closing the mines) was useless. There are cracks everywhere, just like in this house. And this house started getting cracks long ago. This is what opening up a coal mine did to us," he said, pointing to the many cracks that riddle his home.
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| A chimney stands next to an empty road in Jincheng, Shanxi province, China November 12, 2018. Picture taken November 12, 2018. Reuters |
While surviving mines have benefited from the closure of smaller rivals, coal-dependent businesses - including local truckers - are struggling with higher compliance costs and intense competition.
Though less labour-intensive, gas has now emerged as the major bright spot for the city, with its seams rich in coalbed methane (CBM), which has replaced coal as a source of heating for many outlying villages.
"We are in that transition mode, and clearly in transition, you have a bit of growing pains, but the transition is irreversible, said Randeep Grewal, chairman of Greka, which has drilled more than 4,500 CBM wells in Jincheng.
Beijing has promised a more business-friendly campaign this year, but Jincheng is under greater scrutiny after last year's failures, and leniency is unlikely.
Jincheng's coal districts are now in a state of siege as inspectors scour mines, washeries, chemical plants and storage depots for violations.
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| Workers gather at the entrance to a coal washing plant in Jincheng, Shanxi province, China November 13, 2018. Picture taken November 13, 2018. Reuters |
On Monday (November 19), inspectors discovered 19 firms had failed to follow guidelines to restrict output during a smog outbreak last week, the latest in a series of problems uncovered in Jincheng throughout the year.
Ma Jun, a Beijing-based environmental campaigner, said that many cities in Shanxi rank the lowest when it comes to law enforcement because their governments lack the resources to adequately regulate polluters.
China has made efforts to cut the share of coal in total energy use, with the figure expected to drop to 58 percent by 2020, down more than 10 percentage points in a decade. It has also already met a 2020 target to cut the amount of carbon dioxide it emits per unit of growth. (Reuters)
