The Shanxi Coal Museum is, improbably, one of the more interesting museums in Taiyuan — a detailed account of the industry that has defined the province's economy and environment for centuries. The museum covers the history of coal extraction in Shanxi from ancient small-scale operations through the massive industrialisation of the 20th century, with exhibits on mining technology, worker life, geological formation, and the economic history of the coal trade. There is a simulated underground mine walk that takes visitors through a reconstructed pit environment.
The museum is honest about the costs of the coal economy — pollution, occupational disease, mining disasters — in a way that official museums in China sometimes avoid. The display on the relationship between Shanxi coal and the development of northern Chinese cities gives economic context that is hard to find elsewhere. Free admission.