Many of China's 140 million migrant workers are beginning to feel more at home in their adopted cities.
Many of the 3 million migrant workers in Shanghai opted to stay in the city for the Spring Festival holidays, even though the festival is traditionally the most important family-reunion time for Chinese people.
Migrant workers Hua Yun and her husband went to the Jing'an Temple in downtown Shanghai on the first day of the Year of the Rooster.
They burned incense and prayed in front of Buddha for good pay and a smooth life in the coming year.
Hua, 28, born in Yingshang County, in East China's Anhui Province, has worked in Shanghai for eight years.
"I have become accustomed to the life in Shanghai. I enjoy the comfortable living conditions here and, more importantly, the city has started to give migrant workers a more fair and friendly atmosphere to let us merge into the true city life," said Hua.
Hua, whose monthly salary is 990 yuan (US$120), lives in a 28-square-meter apartment in the suburban Taoyuancun Community.
The other 1,500 residents in the community are also migrant workers. Half of them chose to spend the Spring Festival in Shanghai rather than going home.
Pan Bingqing, 16 and born in Huangyan County, Zhejiang Province, is one of Hua's neighbors.
Pan grew up in Shanghai and speaks fluent Shanghai dialect.
"Except that I had no Shanghai permanent household registry document, my life was no different from that of other young Shanghai girls," Pan said.
Two-thirds of Shanghai's migrant workers have social security insurance, which previously only urban residents could have.
The central government has recently given more attention to the rights and interests of migrant workers.
The landmark event was Premier Wen Jiabao helping a migrant worker collect defaulted salary in 2003.
Since then a campaign to help all migrant workers retrieve defaulted salaries has begun and China's legislature is considering a regulation to ensure migrant workers get paid on time.
Apart from getting their salaries on time, migrant workers have begun to get more social respect.
In Hangzhou, another booming city in East China, the municipal government prepared a feast on New Year's Eve for more than 1,000 migrant workers who could not go home.
A worker named Lu, from Houzhou County, Anhui Province, was excited when invited to the feast.
"I've worked in Hangzhou for several years, and this is the first time I've been treated to a feast by the city authorities," Lu said.
In Haikou, capital of southern China's Hainan Province, the municipal government opened its library for free during the Spring Festival for migrant workers.