jeanne boden

carying baskets of stone

The one thing China has is manpower. It is amazing to see sometimes what kind of hard work is being done by people, only using their body. In this mountainous area around Sichuan people carry loads of stone up and down all day.

migrant workers

225 million migrant workers 农民工

Research on the situation of migrant workers in China resulted in a report published by the National Bureau of Statistics on March 25. It shows some interesting figures.

At the end of 2008 China had about 225 million migrant workers; 140 million worked in the cities. Due to the economic crisis 70 million people returned to their villages around Chinese New Year. 14 million of them stayed in the village after the New Year holidays. 71% of these migrants move from Central and West to East China. Astonishing figures hard to imagine in our small countries in Europe. 

20 million lay-offs

The crisis leaves no area unaffected. Today the Chinese government announced that 20 million people lost their job. Many of them are on the way back home.