Fan's two children who stayed behind in his home town in central Henan Province also benefit from the new policies.

The report said that the government allocations of 2007 for rural compulsory education would total 223.5 billion yuan, up 29.5 billion yuan from 2006.

The result for Fan: "All tuition was canceled, which saved my family 1,500 yuan over a whole year. My burden decreased a lot," Fan said.

Fan also gained stature as someone able to give suggestions to Wen, so now he must help relatives and friends who consider him as a person of some importance. Fan said he could help solve some problems as he had come to know more officials and reporters after the talk last year.

Most importantly, he had changed his mind and wanted to learn about policies and laws to safeguard his legal rights and interests. "The only thing I used to think about was earning my daily bread, but after the talk I started to care about learning laws through newspapers and TV," he said.

Yang Ruifeng, a fellow worker, said that he wanted to consult Fan whenever he had problems. Following Fan's suggestions, Yang was able to get his pay before the Spring Festival. "He told us it was wrong and useless to threaten the boss with committing suicide. We should turn to the government with legal materials," Yang said.

"He is much more talkative than before," said Fan's wife, Zhang Xianfen. The 36-year-old woman moved to Beijing a month ago to work with her husband on the same building site.

Fan found his life had improved in recent years. "Our social stature has risen. We eat better and live better. People treat us much more politely than ever before," Fan said.

But there are still problems in the migrant workers' lives, such as the problem of retirement. "What can we do with so little pay in our later years, as some companies do not offer endowment insurance?" he worried.

Last year was one of transition for Fan. He has been waiting to see the new government report. He believes that the government will pay more attention to peasant workers.

For the future, he hopes that all migrant workers can get endowment and hospitalization insurance, and that he can earn more.

This year, he says: "Life will be better and more promising."

(Xinhua News Agency, March 5, 2008)