Chinese miners are nearly unrecognizable at the end of a long day of work
A photo series showing Chinese miners covered in soot has gone viral on social media in the country.
The series shows coal miners from east China's Anhui province after work, their faces blackened with soot.
They posed for a picture with their wives, before washing up and taking another.
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The series has attracted hundreds of thousands of comments on social media sites like Netease and the Twitter-like Weibo, with many saying miners should be given better salaries and rights from the Communist government.
One commenter said the workers face hazardous conditions, and should be paid better.
Another said the photos show which miners wore dust masks while working and which didn't, and noted that managers should enforce health rules more stringently.
The photos come on the back of the Chinese government announcing in March its plans to lay off as many as 6 million workers in the coal and steel industries.
Weeks after the announcement, workers in the coal belt of Heilongjiang put up a street protest against unpaid wages, and held up banners saying "CCP pay us our money," referring to China's ruling Communist Party.
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Victoria Ho is Mashable's Asia Editor, based in Singapore. She previously reported on news and tech at The Business Times, TechCrunch and ZDNet. When she isn't writing, she's making music with her band
