Migrant Workers Trek Back to Sichuan
As the financial crisis raises concerns about the impact of rising unemployment in China, Danwei summarizes a story in the Chongqing Evening News about a group of migrant workers who were laid off after the boss of their factory in Dongguan, Guangdong, disappeared. So they headed back home to Chongqing, 3000 kilometers away, in a cavalcade of motor tricycles:
The workers told the newspaper that they all worked in a plastic factory in Dongguan, Guangdong Province. Recently, their boss suddenly disappeared, taking all the factory’s money with him. The workers decided to go home without being paid. They found ten discarded motorcycles in the factory and refashioned them into these three-wheeled mobile homes.
When the riders were stopped by Chongqing traffic police on an expressway yesterday, they had been on the road for ten days. Of the ten bikes they started out with, only three are still with them. The remainder were discarded along the road due to mechanical problems.
