Structural characterization of four Chinese coal macerals has been undertaken by integration of results from C-13 nmr and ruthenium ion catalyzed oxidation. The average molecular structures were obtained from conventional solid state C-13-CP/MAS nmr and dipolar dephased C-13-CP/MAS nmr using a peak deconvolution approach based on chemical shifts of standard compounds. Derailed molecular information of the macerals has been gained from the chemical degradation using ruthenium ion catalyzed oxidation (RICO).