Chongqing is a mountain city built on steep hills and shrouded in misty fog. Coming out of the airport or one of the city's railway stations, you will probably be swarmed by men carrying shoulder poles and ropes. They are part of the city's porters, or the Bang Bang Army as they are affectionately known by. Most of them are a unique group of migrant farmer workers who are marginalized in this metropolis and can only find jobs carrying goods for others.

However, for the Bang Bang men things are gradually starting to change. More and more urbanites are starting to regard them as indispensable to their daily life, and realize that they deserve equal respect for their contribution to society. To this end the municipality government has built special apartments for migrant workers like Bang Bang men to integrate them into the daily life of the city. Now our reporter Xiao Yu brings us the story.

Reporter:

Arriving in Chongqing, the first thing that will catch your eyes is not the large banner of hotpot advertisements or the beautiful women on the streets but the porters with their bamboo poles. In local dialect, they are called the "Army of Bang Bang", a most distinctive and traditional population of this city.

Coming from rural areas, they can be seen almost everywhere in Chongqing, on street corners, at train and bus stations, and the ship piers. Having to carry your own bags in this Mountain City, with lots of steps, is a no easy thing to do for people. When your belongings become just too heavy to bear, all one needs to do is to cry out, "Bang Bang," then a "Bang Bang" will heed your beck and call. A local resident Zeng Qingxiang says the city needs this special group of people.

"In Chongqing, we can't live without them. If there's no Bang Bang men, transport can become a nightmare. It is horrible for the common person. Unlike other cities in China, Chongqing's streets are narrow and full of steep slopes. In some locations, things can only be carried instead of using vehicles."

The earliest Bang Bang men were porters carrying buckets of water from the Jiangling River for local residents. In the late 1970s, when large amounts of farmers were freed from farming because of the rural reform system in China, many had no choice but to find odd jobs and other opportunities in the city.

Arriving from the countryside with no marketable skills and minimal education, they picked up the simplest of tools, a bamboo pole and some rope and started to bear the city's weights on their shoulders.

Becoming a Bang Bang man in the 1980s, Zhang Qiling says life used to be very difficult at that time. The most difficult part was being looked down upon by others despite his honest hard labor.

"For the first ten years when I came to the city, I felt discriminated against by other people, like travelers or vendors. Whenever they saw people like me, they just kept away from us because we were smelly and dirty."

The price of hiring a Bang Bang man varies, from two yuan to twenty yuan or more. It depends on the distance, and the size and weight of the load.

Zhang Qiling recalls sometimes not getting paid for his work. Not being able to fight for it, the only thing he could do was to forget about it and wait for the next business to come his way. Although he admits that this kind of things is getting less, doing business nowadays is still difficult in other ways due to the increase of Bang Bang men in the city. They can cause social problems too. Wang Honglin, a staff worker for the migrant workers service and management department in the Yu Zhong District of Chongqing analyzes some of the negative factors that have surfaced due to the Bang Bang men in the city.

"Sometimes, the competition for customers among Bang Bang men will end in violence. Groups of Bang Bang men also block traffic. We can't also deny the fact that a few of them turn to theft when they can't get enough business. All these problems contribute to the negative factors for our society and gradually many of the city population have become prejudiced against them."

According to Wang Honglin, one solution is to offer low cost housing in the city's neighborhoods to the Bang Bang men and other migrant workers as well. The rationale is that fixed, cheaper and improved living conditions will make it easier for them to assimilate into the city life and gradually melt down the wall between urbanites and migrant workers.

In the old days with a meager income of only three or four hundred yuan, that's around 30 to 30 dollars per month, Bang Bang man Zhang Qilin picked places to live that were as cheap as possible. Zhang Qiling describes the lodge he used to live.

"The condition of the place I used to stay was terrible. Forty people lived in a room of twenty square meters. When it rained, the room was filled with water. I lived in conditions like that for more than ten years."

In 2005, low-cost housing known as the "Sunshine apartment buildings" were constructed in the Nan An District in Chongqing. On the third floor of a commercial apartment building, there are 34 rooms accommodating 150 migrant workers.

These apartments not only provide necessities such as beds, tables, chairs, and cupboards, but also other amenities, including canteens, reading rooms, audio-visual rooms, and public toilets. The rent for these apartments is extremely low, one yuan per night and 16 yuan every month for utility fees. Considering most Bang Bang men and other migrant workers earn a monthly income of only about 800 to 1000 yuan, roughly 120 dollars, this kind of affordable accommodation is nowhere else to be found.

Gu Siqing works for the management of the Sunshine apartment. He explains the purpose of building such low cost lodgings in the city.

"Our government's first and foremost purpose for building sunshine apartments for migrant workers is to offer them a fixed place to live and guarantee their personal safety in the city. The apartments also provide a place where these workers can become aware of information regarding the kinds of service available to them. It is a good channel to carry out government policy and as well as let city residents get to know migrant workers as neighbors rather than just laborers."

Aside from providing basic living accomodations, free lectures are also frequently organized to teach them various skills from using computers to cooking. These and other programs greatly enhance their ability to have more opportunities to find a better job in the city.

Living in the heart of the city and close to the locals narrows the gap between urbanites and migrant workers. Because of illness and old age, Bang Bang man Zhang Qilin now works in the neighborhood transporting manageable loads of garbage instead of heavy bags. Instead of being looked down upon, residents in the building respect Zhang Qilin and appreciate his contribution.

"I don't feel any difference between us when I meet them every day. Their work is hard and dirty, it's difficult for them too. They make their part of contributions to the city."

"In my point of view, rich or poor, every one is equal. I've never looked down upon them only because they are doing labor work. "

People's attitudes are changing, and the life of Zhang Qilin and other bang bang men's lives are getting better, but we can't forget that in Chongqing, the Bang Bang army is a 100,000 strong army of porters. The overall improvement of their living conditions and other migrant workers' lives is still a big challenge for the municipal government. At least, the successful example of the Sunshine Apartment building offers some direction and hope.