Migrant workers gain more confidence after training.

Ever more migrant workers head for the big city in search of job opportunities.

Children of migrant workers stay in the countryside while their parents work in cities.

Like it or Lump it Migrant Workers in Beijing

By staff reporter ZHANG YUAN

LURED by better living and working conditions, huge numbers of Chinese farmers leave their rural homes for the city. Their education having generally ended at junior middle school, they have little choice but to take up poorly paid manual labor. This they do uncomplainingly as it is preferable to eking out a living in the countryside.

Xiao Cui (Street Cleaner): "I just want to earn enough to get married and run a small business"

It is 4 am, and while Beijingers sleep, Xiao Cui pedals his work tricycle and cart, bristling with brooms and other cleaning tools, along the deserted streets. His daily work schedule is 18 hours of cleaning 7,500 square meters.

Twenty-four-year-old Xiao Cui is from Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. During his seven years of living in Beijing he has worked in automobile repair workshops, restaurants and on construction sites. A friend helped him find his current street cleaning job. Most of his colleagues are also from rural areas, but he is by far the youngest. "I get my salary on time each month, the accommodation is not bad and my boss is fair." Xiao Cui is counting his blessings.

As 9 am approaches, the streets begin to fill with bicycles and cars. According to street cleaning regulations, now is the time for Xiao Cui to deposit what he has collected at the waste depot and take a rest. Then he sees a taxi driver throwing garbage out of his cab. He tells the cab driver, "It's difficult to clean between bicycles parked on the pavement. Next time please use a bin." The taxi driver glares at him and snarls, "Aren't you paid by the government to keep the streets clean? If there was no garbage on the streets you'd be out of a job."

Being spoken to this way is a common occurrence for Xiao Cui and all migrant workers. A few days ago, a friend of his picked up a waste cardboard box in a small neighborhood. The community guard called him a thief, beat him and fined him 200 yuan. Since then no street cleaner has set foot in that particular residential district.

Xiao Cui's girlfriend also works in the cleaning squad. They recently became engaged. The couple plans to work hard for a few more years and earn enough money to go home, marry and do a little local trading.

Zhu Lili (Waitress): "I don't hear their curses any more"

Zhu Lili and a few of her friends came to Beijing from Henan in 1997 on graduating from middle school. After six months of fruitless job searching she had no choice but to borrow money from friends in order to live. During this time she worked at several restaurants on a trial basis but was discharged without being paid a cent on the pretext that she had insufficient qualifications.

Zhu Lili eventually found her current job where she is the only one of the five waiters and waitresses who is actually employed. The others are all relatives of her boss. "I do most of the work and have to be here all the time. The others are free to come and go as they please." Breakfast time is always busy. Lili gets up at 4 am every day to prepare dough and fillings for baozi (steamed stuffed buns). The boss usually arrives at 5 am, and if she has not yet kneaded the dough, he yells at her: "What have you been doing till this time? If you don't want this job you can leave whenever you like, there are plenty more where you came from." Lili finds the best policy is to keep silent and carry on working.

After preparing the dough, Lili takes a 5-kilogram basket of carrots from under the table. They must be pared and grated in the 20 minutes she has left before making the baozi.

The restaurant is packed at this time. One morning as Lili was serving a customer she spilled a little hot water on his sleeve. He cursed her roundly and at length, despite her apologies. By now Lili is hardened to curses, which is just as well because if she were to answer back her salary would be docked.

At lunchtime some of the customers make lewd remarks and go so far as to physically harass her. As usual Lili remains silent. Retaliating would antagonize the customers, who would then complain to her boss.

Zhu Lili sends most of her earnings home to pay for two brothers' school fees. "I have no skills, so restaurant work is all I can do. A waitress' function is to serve, but the salary and treatment in bigger restaurants and hotels might be better than here, where they expect me to do everything."

Lili frequently scans the newspaper for opportunities at better restaurants. She saw a promising opening recently but upon telling her boss she was leaving he said, "You have to stay until the end of the month, otherwise you get no pay."

Xiao Liu (Drinking Water Delivery Boy): "I get paid for what I do"

Xiao Liu came to Beijing last September. He rides a special bike with steel frames on either side in which to carry the large bottles of drinking water he delivers to homes and offices. Initially unfamiliar with Beijing's roads and traffic systems he took exhaustingly roundabout routes on his delivery runs. He now knows his service area and delivers more than 20 bottles each day.

As he approaches an intersection, the traffic light turns red, but he trundles hastily across the road to save time. His bicycle pedal touches the door of a taxi as he turns a corner and the taxi driver gets out to check his car. On seeing his paintwork is undamaged he curses and drives away. Xiao Liu curses back under his breath and continues on his way to the next delivery.

His next customer lives on the 12th floor, so Xiao Liu carries just one bottle of water rather than his customary two, one on his shoulder, the other in his hand. He spent the whole of the previous night unloading more than 300 bottles at the company warehouse. His labors, that left his shoulders stiff and sore, earned him a paltry 50 yuan.

Xiao Liu is uncomplaining. "My work may not be brilliant, but I get paid for what I do."