In the 1980s, three workers at the Yungang Grottoes -- a collection of early Chinese Buddhist cave art -- wanted to make coal carving handiworks imitating the grottoes with coal gangue in Datong to promote tourism in Yungang.

The works were then launched on the market. With the accelerated development of the tour in Yungang, coal-carved handiworks became a hit with both Chinese and foreign tourists. However, the technology at that time was fairly primitive compared to modern technology.

Shi Yuping, who lives in Yungang, believes that making coal-carved handiworks requires delicate care. With his high achievements in sculpting figures, Shi began to make coal carvings using high carving technology. He only used high-quality materials and went to distant places to seek for good coal gangues. Shi even made breakthroughs in tools as well as in expressionism, paying more attention to the contrast between light and dark to make the carvings more vivid.

In the First Yungang Tour Festival, the Datong government promoted coal carving in a grand fashion and introduced it in various exhibitions.

Consequently, coal carving, which has existed for thousands of years but was only known by a few, had made a comeback. When various images emerge from coal, the vitality of this art form shows it true colors, attracting many enthusiasts.

Nowadays, coal carving has been introduced to the international market and is collected by tourists from many different countries.

Apart from the large coal-carved handiworks at the exhibition, small coal-carved handiworks are also well known in Fushun and Datong of China, Vietnam and some other countries.

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