Survival in the forgotten corners of Beijing
In the villages of the capital's suburbs, not yet razed to the ground by bulldozers, migrant workers that make up the population struggle to survive.
Beijing (AsiaNews/Agencies) More or less they are old houses held together by pieces of tin and people live in them, maybe only 10 square metres, but they are homes to many migrant workers who have come from the country to earn a living. There 171 villages, the forgotten corners of Beijing, only now brought to mind because their demolition is planned : space is needed for the 2008 Olympics. No one worries about the problems of the people who live in those "homes".
The villages in line for demolition are almost all to be found on the fourth ring road or near the sports centres in construction for the 2008 games.
Over 300 villages are under threat from Beijing's rapid expansion : completely ignoring the rights of ordinary people the government proceeds with its destruction of entire neighbourhoods and villages born in Beijing's first suburb from ex rural districts, such as Chaoyang and Haidian.
The inhabitants of the demolished buildings are forced to move to tower blocks, where entire families are allocated small separate apartments, thus eroding the pillar of Chinese society : family unity.
Often, however those left in villages live in no better conditions than those who are moved into the tower blocks. Most of them are migrant workers, housed in a few square metres together with their families, who came to the city in the hope of scraping together some money in order to survive.
Li Min comes from Henan Li Min: she lives in a shelter of 10 square metres in Taiyanggong, a village close to the city's third ring road. Few people danger to wander into this "forgotten corner of the world" . "No one cares for us. No one sees us" says Li Min, who rents her shelter for 100 yuan a month together with her husband and child. "It's not cold, it's nice living here even if the house is nothing compared to those in my home town. But we have no money, we came all the way here to try to earn some".
Accordino to official figure san estimated 1.5 million people live in these villages, yet to be raised by the bulldozers. Chen Mengping, head of Beijings Institute for Economics and Social Sciences says many of the villages remain intact because experts maintain they are not worth building over. "The government should take care of these neighbourhoods that experts consider unprofitable" continues Cheng, for whom these neighbourhoods depicted as council zones, are not only filled with poor people. Migrant workers and school graduates live in these "forgotten corners" while they wait to make money and then move on. For the landlords of these homes often the rent paid is their only source of income. Zhang Gengdi, 64, from Xiju village near the third west ring road, owns a large house, the money he earns from renting the internal courtyard, 800 yaun a month. Yet Zhang complains :"It's always dirty here, the public toilets are dirty and during the summer the smell from them is diabolical". Moreover Zhang does not feel safe because of frequent passing of thieves and says that "if I moved into a modern building perhaps I wouldn't have to leave the house each time I needed to use the bathroom".
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