Today, 40-year-old Zhang is the boss of his own interior decorating company with a staff of two dozen workers and a business turnover of 10 million yuan (US$1.2 million) a year.

More than 8,000 farmers from Zhang's hometown in Changlinhe Township, in Feidong County, of eastern Anhui Province, or 30 per cent of the township's population, are working as construction workers or decorators in large cities, each bringing home at least 4,000 yuan (US$480) a year.

The amount may not sound like much to urban dwellers, but it makes up more than half of the total income of the workers' families and has greatly improved their lives.

Over the past decade, thanks to the growing number of farm laborers going to cities to work, the per capita annual income of the township people has tripled, rising from several hundred yuan (less than US$100) in 1990 to over 2,000 yuan (US$240 ) in 2003, said a local official.

Analysts say this rise in income of migrant workers triggered in the mid-1990s by redundant rural laborers pouring into cities, has increased farmers'income and even changed their lifestyles and values.

Of the 40 million rural people in Anhui Province, over 7 million were working in other provinces and cities in 2003, and brought home 28 billion yuan (US$3.4 billion).

Those who "make it big" like Zhang Henghe build new houses for their families and bring home novelties from the city: computers, mobile phones and fashionable clothes.

Two years ago, Zhang built a two-storey villa with a floor area of 300 square meters and filled it with expensive furniture and household electrical appliances. "I never expected to live in such a beautiful and spacious house," said Zhang's father, whose lifetime earnings on the farm were much less than Zhang makes in a year.

Figures provided by the National Bureau of Statistics show that 130 million surplus rural laborers were diverted to non-agricultural sectors between 1978 and 2000, an average of 5.91 million a year.

"This movement to urban jobs has played a vital role in narrowing the gap between the rural and urban worlds and bolstering the national economy, particularly rural economy," said Professor He Kaiyin, a noted specialist on agricultural affairs and an adviser to the Anhui provincial government.

In addition to a better life, the professor said, the improvement in migrant workers' economic conditions has also brought new ideas and concepts from the outside world back to the countryside.

Some migrant workers returning home with the money they have earned and new skills they have acquired start up their own businesses, which, in turn, boosts the local economy and provide jobs for their fellow villagers.

Of the 400,000 migrant workers from Wuwei, once a poverty-stricken county in Anhui Province, more than 10,000 have returned home, setting up over 1,000 businesses that reported a total revenue of approximately 900 million yuan (US$108 million) in 2003.

Today, Wuwei County ranks among the top 10 counties in Anhui in terms of economic development.

To foster this process, a large number of Chinese localities -- including the coastal provinces of Guangdong, Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Shandong and Shanghai Municipality -- have closed the urban-rural gap by granting permanent residency to migrants residing in cities and have begun to give migrants' children equal access to education in urban schools.

Some cities have started to provide migrant workers with medical and employment insurance and other essential social security services. Local governments in their hometowns, on the other hand, have stepped up vocational training for their surplus laborers and keep them informed about the outside world.

As one of China's leading suppliers of migrant workers, the city of Fuyang in Anhui Province has established a comprehensive intermediary service network that has helped some 1.5 million people, or 80 percent of its surplus laborers, find jobs in more developed regions.

(China Daily February 25, 2004)