'Why would the contractor give me their licence? It's impossible,' he said, moving a worn wooden plank, which served as part of his furniture, from a tiny concrete shack in which his family has lived for several months.

Life has not been going his way. Mr Li and his neighbours were evicted from the shacks they rented, located in a pocket of shanty shelters surrounded by residential estates along Tiancun Street in western Beijing. The eviction notice came after a shack behind his caught fire and killed one of his neighbours.

Fire hazards prevail in slums such as these because of illegal tapping into the power grid, but Mr Li has no choice. He is moving his family to another shack nearby, paying 240 yuan a month in rent.

'Things are getting more expensive now,' he said. 'The previous tenant [of the shelter I am moving into] paid only 200 yuan.'

Mr Li's wife, Wang Yumei , said she could feel the pinch from inflation although the couple from Nanyang in Henan province , only arrived in Beijing to make their living last year.

'We have to spend at least 900 yuan a month on food and rent. That only covers the minimum expenses,' she said, laughing off the question of whether they could afford to eat pork now that prices had doubled compared with last year.

'We could still have pork in our meals once or twice a month last year, but there's no way this year,' she said. 'The 900 yuan we spend only covers basic food, like vegetables and rice, and rent.'

What bothers them and their neighbours most is the soaring price of honeycomb briquettes, used for heating. The price of coal for winter heating has jumped by 30 per cent, and a family like Mr Li's generally has to spend 500 yuan to get through the winter.

Even rural migrants who share heating have to pay about 80 yuan a month for heating alone - a significant amount when they earn an average of 800 to 1,500 yuan a month.

Zhou Fusheng and his wife Zhou Xue , a young couple living next to Mr Li, said they had had enough of expensive living costs in Beijing and were planning to leave for home soon.

'Things are just so expensive here. We hoped to come to earn a living, and we live like beggars,' said Mr Zhou, 27. 'I brought 6,000 yuan with me when I came to Beijing last year. Now not only have I not saved any money, but I also have had to spend 2,000 to 3,000 yuan from my savings.'

Both have been working as cleaners since they arrived in the capital, earning about 1,000 yuan a month each.

'We've had to spend about 1,500 yuan a month on food and accommodation. That doesn't include fuel for the winter or clothes,' Ms Zhou said. To make matters worse, she felt a sudden, acute pain in her leg one day and it cost more than 2,000 yuan for a hospital check-up. 'We spent the money, and the hospital could not find the cause of the pain,' she said. 'I have to quit my job, and my leg is not treated yet.'

Mr Zhou said he planned to move back to Linyi in Shandong province - his wife's hometown - to work as a miner.

'I can earn about 3,000 yuan a month if I work as a miner. When I was at home in Heilongjiang , I ate meat three times a day, but here eating meat is a luxury,' he said.

'Life here is not fit for a human,' he said, standing outside the shack he rented, amid the stench from a public toilet and piles of rubbish.

About 20 minutes' walk from the slum, a group of scavengers piled their possessions - plastic bottles, food and other items they had collected - around their shacks.

Scavenger Li Yuehua , 56, said she was not too worried about the rocketing price of meat, as she picked almost all of her food from rubbish bins.

'I can find rice, fruit, meat and vegetables among the garbage. Not all the meat we find is edible, but some is OK,' she said. 'Of course, some of it has a strange smell, or why would people throw it away?'

Ms Li and her husband earn about 2,000 yuan a month from scavenging, but she is most worried about the price of fuel. She has to spend 400 yuan a month for coal for her family and her relatives, who live next door.

'In the past I could find [honeycomb] briquettes in the garbage dump, and I could use them,' she said. 'Now most of the houses are demolished to make way for new buildings. I cannot find the briquettes any more. This year, I have to pay for the fuel and the price is so much higher now.'

Rising costs

The Consumer Price Index hit an 11-year high last month

November's CPI 6.9%