Putting Shanxi on the map
Updated on 06 October 2006
Lindsey Hilsum travels to China's coal mining region, and finds it a place we should all know about.
Having done my first reporting trip in China, I now understand why I'm here. My job is to get in the way.
The Channel 4 News China producer, Bessie Du, is a talented, experienced, bilingual journalist, so she doesn't need my help in formulating questions to interviewees.
My presence simply slows things down, as she has to interrupt the flow of the interview to translate for me.
Matt Jasper has an essential function: he's the cameraman. Much shooting here has to be done discreetly because, if you draw too much attention to yourself a government official or general busybody will stop you filming.
So Matt covers his bright red hair with a baseball cap and tries to look inconspicuous. And me?
"It's probably better if you stay in car," says Bessie, tactfully. Another Round-Eye will increase the chances of us getting shooed away. So I hunker down in the back seat, and hide.
I am not only superfluous, I am actually an impediment to getting the story.
The ITN Beijing Bureau. The C4N team from right to left are: Kuang Ling the office manager, Bessie Du, C4N producer, Lindsey Hilsum, Lao Zhang, C4N driver, then Matt Jasper the C4N Cameraman
I would like to think that this will get better, as my Chinese improves. However, judging by the pained look on my Chinese teacher's face as I recite my tones and try to distinguish between the sounds "j" "ch" and "zh", this isn't going to happen any time soon.
Without plastic surgery, I am not going to start to look Chinese, so my options are limited.
Nonetheless, I learnt a lot from our trip to Shanxi, China's coal-belt. A thick grey fog of pollution hangs in the air, shrouding the power stations and cement factories so you can scarcely see the filthy smoke they emit.
The chemical factories are easy to spot - the smoke is bright yellow. The smell of sulphur pervades. One of our interviewees recalled his childhood in Shanxi's capital city, Taiyuan, now one of the most polluted cities on earth.
"We used to lie on our backs and watch the stars," he said. No longer. Children in Taiyuan today have probably never seen a star.
We visited one of the most unfortunate villages in China, squeezed between a giant coal mine and a fertiliser factory. The village chief and his friend are campaigning to save the village but local officials have ignored their pleas.
Industry brings in money; protecting the environment or moving villagers costs money.
The pollution from Shanxi affects the whole world. Earlier this year, a cloud of soot and sulphur originating here was sited over the west coast of the USA. China's coal-fired power stations are a major contributor to global warming.
We filmed at one, partly built by the British firm Mitsui Babcock, which is using new technology to reduce emissions (most new power stations still use old methods).
I may not have understood every word people said in Shanxi, and I wasn't right there when Matt and Bessie snuck into the open-cast mines to film the miners toiling away.
But the story wasn't hard to understand: China's coal-fired economy has brought wealth and prosperity to millions, but it's destroying the lives of those who are left behind.
It may feel faraway but, as the earth heats up and our climate changes, we all need to know what's happening in Shanxi.
Related links
China reports
Lindsey Hilsum in the New Statesman
