About 30 years ago, construction worker Song Aimin believed a lifetime of labor could earn him a spot among China's growing urban middle class. He left his village in the northern Hebei province and headed to Beijing.
"Back then, all the people in the villages wanted to leave to go find work in the cities. Laboring in the cities meant that you always ate well — at least, better than you ate back home," says Song, now 64 years old. "Everyone went to the cities to make money and to improve their lives."
