China's young migrants dream big

Speaking fluent Mandarin and wearing a fine cashmere coat, no one would have any inkling that Ting Chengchun, 36, is from a poor background and only spent nine years in school.

A villager from the hinterland of southwest China's Guizhou Province, Ting has spent the last 18 years in the rich southern province of Guangdong, working her way up from factory girl to waitress, cosmetic assistant and, finally, sales manager of a purified water company.

"This year I will see if our business can expand to my hometown," said Ting, who left for her annual trip home on Sunday, three days before Lunar New Year's Eve, the most important holiday in China.

Ting said she would undertake a market survey in her home county Guiding and the provincial capital Guiyang, with the hope that she can work -- and live -- closer to home.

HOMECOMING

Ting was one of 500 migrant workers who won a free ticket for a bullet train from Guangzhou to Guiyang, thanks to an Internet campaign that asked them to share their stories.

Xinhua reporters were with them throughout the five hour journey.

Gone are the days when the word migrant worker is synonymous with disheveled men and women in shoddy clothes with heavy sacks slung across their backs. In fact, most of the migrants on the Guiyang-bound train were resplendent in their smart clothes with matching suitcases and smartphones.

This journey was the first time An Huaibo, 37, from the underdeveloped county of Sinan in Tongren City, had made the trip in 12 years.

"It was always so hard to get a ticket. I even camped out at the ticket counter, only to be told that the tickets were all gone," he said.

An only finished primary school and was destitute by 14. At 20 he left for Guangdong, first working at construction sites and then factories.

He had never even entertained the dream of permanently returning home until he was given a brochure on the train that listed business opportunities in Guizhou.

"Maybe I could set up a fodder factory in my home village?"

China has about 269 million migrant workers, according to 2014 figures from the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security.

Measures in the last decade have improved the lives of migrant workers in cities through training, medicare coverage, pension schemes and education for their offspring.

However, as the cost of living in the cities continues to rise, many are staring to think about the potential for opportunities back home.