Sandstorms and burdens

For 12-year-old Yang Yang, city life means more opportunities and convenience. Back to 2003, when he moved with his parents from a small county in central Inner Mongolia to Baotou, the second largest city in the autonomous region, he was struck by the ample supply of goods.

"I used to walk a long distance to buy pencils when I lived in the village, but in Baotou, there are many shops nearby, making life accessible," he said.

"The urban scenery is more beautiful, and the teaching quality also surpasses that in rural areas," he said.

He is amazed at the skyscrapers in Shanghai, a three-dimensional film in the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum and the giant China Pavilion, where his painting is on show till the end of October.

Earlier this year, a painting by Yang, under the theme of My Vision of Future Life and Cities, stood out from more than 5,000 drawings from across China and was selected was one of the 98 winners of a competition organized by the China Pavilion.

On his painting, children play merrily skateboards against green trees and budding flowers.

"A good city is where people can enjoy fresh air and green trees, away from sandstorms," he says. Baotou is notorious for its fierce sandstorms in spring, as it is adjacent to several large deserts in China.

Personal happiness, Yang says, should be based on guaranteed economic situations. Yang's father is a migrant worker on the construction sites of Baotou factories, and it has been an unstable job for years.

Everyday, his parents, both of whom having a primary education, go out to work at 5:00 AM, and come back home no earlier than 8:00 PM, leaving little time to be with Yang, even on the weekends.

"I want to have more time with them, but the most important thing is to study hard to get out of financial hardship," Yang says.

Expo, a bit far

Going to the Expo is not affordable for all the 360 million children in China, as economic standards differ greatly, from the coastal cities to the inland regions.

For Chen Hongyi, 13, from Fuling District, southwest China's Chongqing, a visit to Shanghai is a dream, though it is geographically connected with her hometown as the Yangtze River runs through Chongqing and ends at Shanghai.

The cost of an Expo trip is too much for the family, who rely heavily on the income of Chen's father, a primary school teacher.

Chen's mother works in a small town, about five hours by car from Fuling and she comes back home once a month.

"I have never talked about my wish with my dad and mum," said Chen, who keeps track of the Expo on TV everyday.

"I know many countries have displayed exhibits they are proud of and their cultures, but I'm more interested in the high-tech products," she said.

In the future city life envisioned by Chen, high-tech products like solar energy-powered cars and video telephones will be widely used by everyone, while people travel by super high-speed aircraft.

She hopes the digital divide between rural and urban regions could be lessened. "Most important, these technologies should be affordable. So I can see my mum on the telephone everyday, and she can come back home everyday," she said.

(Xinhua News Agency June 1, 2010)