Migrant workers' housing dream

To own their own home tops the dream list of tens of millions of Chinese, especially many migrant workers in big cities. Most of them want to settle in Beijing, Shanghai or Shenzhen with a place of their own, no matter how small. But as Liu Ming reports, the harsh reality is they have no idea when their dream will come true.

26-year-old Yin Hongwei is from Shanxi. He's been a property agent in Beijing for a little more than two years. He says he fell in love with the city the moment he arrived. He works ten hours a day, six or seven days a week. Despite all the pressures he has to deal with every day, he's decided to stay on in the capital.

Yin Hongwei, Property Agent in Beijing, said, "I started selling apartments in December 2007. I make one transaction on average each month. I might lose my job if I don't make any deals during a certain period of time. My workload is heavy nearly every day. And I have to meet the challenge and undergo both the mental and physical pressures."

Yin rents a small apartment far from the downtown area. There, what he likes to do best is to talk with his girlfriend about their future home. Yin is eager to make his dream come true after helping many others do the same. The couple are happy whenever they can put away some money.

Yao Tianyun, Migrant worker in Beijing, said, "We plan to buy a small home where we can get married. But we can't afford to for the time being. We have peer pressure when many of our friends and classmates get married. Our family also presses us to hurry. We're really going through a hard confusing time."

Yin said, "Money is the top problem. I am the eldest son of my family. My salary will help provide for my sister and brother. My parents are farmers. They are poor. I have heavy family responsibilities while pursuing my own housing dream in Beijing."

The property market in 2009 put a damper on Yin Hongwei's dream. The average price went up by more than 50 percent, far beyond the reach of most migrant workers.

Tomorrow, our program "My Migrant Life" continues. We will tell you the life of the children left in the villages. These 60 million children are confronted with problems like education, security and so on.