Migrant workers in Shenzhen wired a total of 8.95
billion yuan (US$1.08 billion) to their rural hometowns last year,
accounting for over 68 percent of all the money wired from the
southern city, according to the local government.
In the past 15 years, Shenzhen's migrant workers
made money transfers totaling 82.05 billion yuan (US$9.9
billion).
A large number of migrant workers in the city come
from provinces such as Hunan,
Jiangxi
and Henan
where the local economy is relatively underdeveloped. Most
remittances were made around festivals such as
Spring Festival, the
Mid-Autumn Festival and the New Year.
A baby-sitter surnamed Hu, who works for an
ordinary family in Shenzhen, Guangdong
Province, transferred almost all of her 400-yuan income each
month to her home in a poor remote mountain area. Last year, her
family bought a color TV with the money.
Currently there are nearly 100 million rural people
working in the cities, and their income has been a major source for
rural families to improve their lives.?
(Xinhua News Agency February 6, 2005)