Some of her peers in similar circumstances have lost themselves in the material world, and some of them, surprised, panicked and struggling, suffer personality disorders. She speculates, “This causes distortions in the entire migrant family, so from this population of people how can I expect to find a healthy and normal boyfriend?”

Some 55.9 percent of new migrant workers plan to buy an apartment and settle in the city where they work, according to the China Youth and Children Research Center (CYCRC). The Ministry of Public Security concluded in 2007 that 74.1 percent of migrant workers found RMB 3,000 per square meter an acceptable housing cost, and 19 percent were open to paying RMB 3,001-4,000; 6.9 percent could even countenance RMB 4,000 or more. But houses in the RMB 3,000 per square meter range are concentrated in the counties, cities or towns of the central and western regions. In the eastern coastal areas where migrant workers congregate, the housing prices in small towns hit the high ends of the scale, and in big cities, the price has gone beyond RMB 10,000 per square meter. The conclusion is that no more than 10 percent of the new-generation migrant workers can actually afford to buy houses and settle down.

When I first came to Beijing, many people envied me, but I’m not happy here. Why? Too fast a pace of life and too many rich people perhaps? It’s often something insignificant that makes me feel inferior.

During rush hours, the buses passing through Banbidian Houjie beyond the West Fourth Ring Road are jammed with young migrant workers making the best of their crowded commuting conditions by reading novels on their cell phones or listening to music. Banbidian Houjie used to be a small village of 300 households at the edge of Beijing city proper. Now it teems with 10,000 migrant residents. The villagers have built lots of multiple-story buildings, many of them seven-story economy units. RMB 300-400 a month will get you a room here with a shared toilet and kitchen, and it will be dark and narrow, furnished with just a bed and a table. Water and power supplies are unstable in these compounds, and the garbage is piled up outside. It is reported that all such communities will be demolished and the inhabitants relocated. Low-rent housing will become more and more scarce within city boundaries, and lodgings for migrant workers will hover beyond the suburbs.

Labor force issues highlight other complications. Unequal pay, unequal benefits and unequal rights attached to equal positions – that is what the buzz around “unequal citizen treatment” is about. For instance, migrants are not entitled to a paid vacation, and female migrant workers do not enjoy paid maternity leave. They do not have equal access to the city’s public services, nor are they entitled to enjoy the benefits provided by policies designed to improve access to low-rent or economically affordable housing.

Chen Guorui, a section chief with the All-China Federation of Trade Unions, said that China’s household registration system is a form of population registration and management. Under the planned economy it played an effective role in managing population flows and influencing labor demand and supply cycles. Unfortunately, this institutional framework has not changed with the times, and regulations associated with it impinge on education, health care, social security and matters of common welfare. Social discrimination and inequality deprive migrant workers of what urbanites can automatically expect.

Zhang Qianru, as both ingénue and street-wise woman, may be that odd combination that keeps a person afloat in the urban tides of Beijing, but the thrill may be chilling: “Beijing, as the national political and cultural center, offers more opportunities than coastal industrial hotspots. This city is built on migrants. Many living examples of migrant success are on hand here, and that makes the newcomers fearless. But the city faces increasingly acute stresses, and we are coping with all kinds of troubles.”