Shen Xiaoxiang takes care of a boy for a family in Beijing. Lin Shujuan / China Daily

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Factory of dreams

Her daughter, who has just turned 21, has recently been promoted to a management position after three years of waitressing at a restaurant in Sichuan's capital Chengdu. She'll also bring home Mr Right to meet her parents.

Shen says she simply can't miss the occasion.

Her son, who will soon turn 19, has become a full-time baker in one of the country's top bakeries after a three-month apprenticeship. He now earns 3,500 yuan a month.

And it has been a winter without snow.

"I hate snow," Shen says.

In late 2003, Shen - who only finished two years of primary school - arrived in the capital, where "you can earn money even just by mopping the floor", her younger sister had told her.

Mopping a busy underground parking lot was her first job.

That was a snowy winter.

The smell of gasoline made her nauseous. She lost her appetite and had migraines every working minute.

Because of the snow, every car that entered left tracks of muck that made her job seem excessively repetitive and futile.

She quit after eight days.

The mere mention of snow still takes her mind back to the cold, damp, smelly underground parking lot and muddy tire tracks.

Shen next landed a gig as a dishwasher at a high-profile Western restaurant - for one day.

Her hands wrinkled and turned white as the number of dishes she washed far exceeded her primary school math's ability to count them.

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