Transcript: Farm and City

NARRATOR: Life's getting harder for peasants like Mr. Shu.

MR. SHU (translated): That's my land. This is ah, state allocated based on the number of family members.

This year the most profitable crop -- bitter melon and eggplant.

PETER KWONG, REPORTER: We going to Mr. Shu's house. You can see it's quite a humble house and he doesn't have much money.

MR. SHU (translated): This is my mother, she's 70 years old. This is where they store the grain. The government is no longer giving good prices for the rice they grow. At same time they loading up with all kind of taxes. He's saying that you can't really survive as a rice farmer anymore. Some people have to work periodically in the city to get some labor income.

NARRATOR: Mr. Shu's son left the farm by joining the army. It's one of the only ways to get around the laws that forbid farmers from leaving their village. But all over rural China it's hard to find any young people. They've secretly slipped off to the cities because that's where the jobs are.

NARRATOR: 15 percent of China's rural peasants have migrated to urban areas where they live like illegal aliens in their own country. The pay is low, working conditions are primitive, but it's better than life in the countryside.