Min Gong Restaurants
Migrant Workers and the Restaurants that follow them
There are no official statistics, but migrant workers make up a sizeable proportion of Beijing’s proportion. They come from rural areas all over the country in search of employment.
Male migrant workers usually find work on construction sites, women can be found waiting tables all over the city. Migrants ‘fresh’ from the countryside tend to congregate in different areas of the city according to their province of origin.
Construction sites that employ large numbers of migrant workers sometimes build temporary accomodation for them (thin-walled grey two storey buildings near construction sites).
Restaurants catering specifically to migrant workers (ie very cheap, very basic) open up near areas where large numbers of migrant workers find employment.
On May 1st Beijing Made Easy went for lunch in our local ‘migrant cafe’. The walls consist of scaffolding with wooden boards bolted on, the roof is corrugated iron held down with bricks.
The floor is uncemented bricks, the menu is very simple (handwritten on a sheet of paper stuck to the wall). A large bottle of Qingdao beer is 1.5RMB (US$ 0.20).
The food is… Pretty good! We had a bowl of ‘Knife Cut Noodles’ and one Egg Fried Rice. Both were very simple, but did their job (filling the belly for a hard day’s labour) very well.
See Also Lost in Beijing
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Beijing hotels – from backpacker hostels to elegant courtyard hotels, Beijing Made Easy gives you the lowdown on where to stay and how to book it – Beijing hotels made easy.
Beijing Flights
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Beijing Flights – flying times and getting to Beijing Capital Airport, flight booking and who to fly with – everything you need to make Beijing flights easy.
Beijing Attractions
What to see and do around Beijing
Wonder at the Great Wall, be awed by the magnificent Forbidden City, drink in the scenery from a boat on the Summer Palace’s Kunming Lake.
