Honggu black pottery has inherited the characteristics of Majiayao culture and combines those of Majiayao culture and Longshan culture. The products have been sold to Japan and Malaysia. The folk artist Shang Tianming lives in Yaojie Town, Honggu District, Lanzhou, Gansu Province.
  Yaojie gets its name from baking pots. The works here are famous for smoothness, clearness, resistance to acid and erosion. It originated from the Ming Dynasty. According to the historical records, in the Ming Dynasty, rich coal resources were discovered along Datong River and then the artisans started to build pits and made works of pottery and porcelain. The technology of this field has been gradually developed in the Ming and Qing Dynasty. Afterwards, due to the conflicts and diseases in 1918, the producing of works of pottery and porcelain has been paused. In the 1930s, the conflicts were soothed and the producing has been started again and reached the peak. There were 18 pits with 3 large pits, 6 middle-sized pits and 6 small pits. The annual production amounted to more than 100 thousand pieces with more than 50 kinds.

   With the rich coal resources, Yaojie Street is a coal belt in the east of Qilian Mountain and is famous as the “the sea of coal”. The coal here has the characteristics of high temperature and strong fire with 6000 – 8000 calorie per kilogram. It is the traditional specialty in Gansu and Qinghai Province. In 1959, the annual production is about ten thousand tons. It has produced 10.73 million tons of coal in the past 40 years. In 1970s, the amount of reserved coal was two or three tons of the coal company in Gonggu District. In 1982, the production of coal has become more and the local people carried it to other near places to sell. They also sold it to Qinghai Province by car and train.
   Yaojie Street is a community where people of Han, Hui and Man live together. For a very long time, their different religions, cultural traditions, customs and habits have assimilated each other and share a lot with each other.