Honeycomb Briquette seller 胡同卖煤工

Honeycomb briquettes are traditional heating material for many people living in the big courtyards shared with other families in Beijing's Hutong(lane) areas.

When winter comes, people starts to set up the ovens themselves with tinplate funnels. I still remember the time when we lived in such courtyard in my childhood, we also had tow ovens burning these kinds of briquettes. To build up the funnel is actually very professional work, since the oven locates in the living room, you have to be very carefully to seal the joints of every tinplate funnels. Every night before go to bed you envelop hearth correctly, make sure there will be no CO leakage and also keep the coal burning to warm the room. Every winter season you could hear some reports on CO toxicosis caused by briquette oven.

The coals are mostly from western mountain areas of Beijing and it is made into the form of honeycomb to achieve more air for burning in the hearth. In different city blocks there are small briquette manufactories and the salesmen ride on a trike through the Hutongs and pile the briquettes on the platform and selling them dirently to doors. Their faces are always smeared black with the coal and remind me always on the Peking opera actors who draw patterns on faces for showing the characteristics of the figures.