Workers in Guangzhou’s urban villages face days living on the streets as their residences restrict entry
Zhang Yanbing had been living in a rented apartment in Lujiang, Guangzhou, and going to work in nearby textile factories for five years. In the last week, however, he has spent five days sleeping on a cardboard box near a subway station, with only a quilt distributed by volunteers for shelter and food and water provided by local officials.
The 40-year-old garment worker from Sichuan province is just one of the thousands working and living in the “urban villages” of Haizhu district, which are administered as villages but have been encompassed by Guangzhou’s urban sprawl. In Haizhu, these urban villages are major centers of textile production employing thousands of workers, mostly migrants from other provinces and the outlying countryside. In recent weeks, they have been closed off or placed under strict pandemic management due to rising Covid cases in the city, leaving people like Zhang stranded outside with nowhere to stay after leaving centralized quarantine.
Shihuan Chen is a contributing writer at The World of Chinese. She is passionate about covering lively and untold stories in China, especially from a human-centric perspective. Her other writing can be found on Sixth Tone, Esquire China, and other media platforms.
