Solar energy powers up sister-city partnership

In the 1980s Chang Weiming's hometown of Datong in North China's Shanxi province was commonly nicknamed the city of coal as it fueled China's industrialization with its resources.

In fact since New China was founded in 1949, Shanxi has delivered more than 3 billion tons of premium thermal coal, keeping hundreds of millions of people warm and stoking industrial and economic growth.

However, the warm glow that this delivered had a darker, more somber side. As a child, Chang lived next to a thermal power plant and recalls his school years under leaden skies shrouded in coal dust.