Photo story: Life in containers

Workers walk back to the nearby living area to have lunch after they finish work at a construction site in Xiamen, southeast China's Fujian province, Oct. 16, 2013.

Their living area is very special. They live neither in rented apartments nor temporarily built houses, but in six-yuan-per-day cabinets in containers.

There are dozens of such container buildings surrounding the construction site. Each two-story building consists of seven to eight containers, with eighteen square meters for one room. There are public kitchens and toilets in these buildings. When entering a room, you can find five bunk beds standing in rows against walls, leaving a narrow walkway only for two people to stand side by side. There are windows are on both sides of the containers, making the rooms bright enough.

According to workers, these cabinet rooms are rented by their employers. Compared with the rental houses which cost five to six hundred yuan per month in the nearby villages, these rooms "can save a lot of money." In addition to the cheap price, the construction of container buildings is much easier. "It only takes one day to build and can be quickly withdrawn," which exactly matches their work.

Behind the container buildings is the place where they work. High-rise buildings make a stark contrast with these container houses. Their life is far from satisfying; they have a dream to own an apartment built by themselves.