Waitress Feng Juan, from Nanjing in the eastern Jiangsu Province, has been working in Beijing for three years. "Our staffers are from everywhere: Anhui, Hubei, Jiangsu and many other provinces," she said. "It's really lucky to be so close to the Games."

Peng Xiaoshui, 54, feels even luckier -- he's a gardener outside the Bird's Nest. "We planted all the trees in this area," he said in his strong dialect of the central Henan Province.

Peng and his colleagues also tend the meadow and potted plants, working six to 10 hours a day according to how much work is to be done, and make slightly more than 1,000 yuan (143 U.S. dollars) a month. Food and lodgings are free.

Beijing's mid-summer heat has scared away some of his countrymen but Peng insisted he would stay for the Games. "I wish to stay close, even though I have no chance to enter the stadium for the opening ceremony or the competitions."

Official statistics showed that at one point in the past three years, a maximum of 1 million migrant workers were in Beijing. Since Olympics-related projects were initiated at the beginning of 2005, 31 venues and 45 training stadiums have been built.

Yet only 33 out of more than 400 construction workers were allowed to stay after they finished building the Bird's Nest to maintain the masterpiece venue for the Games.

Beijing Municipal Construction Committee spokesman Zhang Nongke said last week there were "fewer migrant workers in Beijing this year", because a large number of construction projects were concluded as the Olympics were drawing near and some construction companies had moved to work on other projects outside Beijing.

He said migrant workers were welcome back to work on new projects in Beijing, after the Games.

Migrant laborers from rural areas, estimated at 210 million across the country, have become a pillar of China's work force, but they face various problems, including pay arrears, work-place injury compensation, health care and children's schooling.

"The migrants are also citizens of Beijing," said Lu Yingchuan, a development and reform official in Beijing at a press conference last week. "Over the years we've been working to improve their standards of living and facilitate their employment in the city."

(Xinhua News Agency August 5, 2008)