Wang's experiences have transformed him, body and mind.

While the day-to-day physical work has bulked him up, he also suffers from joint pains and a cough, owing to the cold, damp and dusty environment underground.

"It is one of the hardest, dirtiest and most dangerous professions in the world," Wang says.

While miners are often thought of as victims of disasters, he is at pains to point out that "we miners are very brave, industrious, are able to work under great pressure, and pay constant attention to detail".

And it is a man's world - State labor laws prohibit the employment of women to work underground.

During breaks and meal times, the hottest topic is women. Who is the best looking girl in the community? Or, who is cheating on whom?

"It is the only entertainment we have underground," Wang says.

The trading of profanities and crude insults is common, and helps ease the stress of mine work, he says.

But as a post-80s college graduate, Wang senses a distance between him and older miners.

Of the mine's 6,000 employees, about 1,000 are miners, of which 30 percent belong to the post-80s generation, holding at least a senior high school diploma.

Most of the older miners have just a primary school education and some are illiterate. The oldest miner in Wang's team is 44.

"We younger miners have interests the older miners don't have. They don't care who (US President) Barack Obama is or what is the breaking news of the moment. They just care about how much money they can earn, or which grocery store has the cheaper eggs."

Few of the educated older miners surf the Internet, while Wang spends almost all his spare time online, teaching himself computer programming.

"Mining has isolated them from the outside world, and made them numb."

Wang says he has to constantly remind himself not to succumb to such numbness.

"It is just a job. I won't dig coal forever. I still have dreams," Wang says.

He says he will leave the mine if there are better job opportunities. Older miners tell him he's being impractical, but his family supports him.

For the time being, Wang is focused on a singing contest his company is organizing.

He will sing his favorite song - Chinese singer Wang Feng's Life in Full Blossom:

I have lost my dreams many times;

I want to go beyond the common life;

I want life in full blossom;

Just like flying in the vast sky.