IT IS THE MIDDLE of the afternoon and Li Zenghong is leaning over a makeshift chess board, absorbed in his game. It's raining and there's not much chance of finding work. 'There's no work today,' he laments, eyeing the weather and his opponent from the shelter of a shopfront awning.
On better days, Mr Li can pocket 30 yuan (about HK$28) to 40 yuan per day, balancing loads suspended from a bamboo pole slung over his shoulder. He is part of the 'Army of Sticks', the manpower that moves Chongqing in Sichuan province.
He and his fellow soldiers in this army of muscle gather in front of department stores, appliance shops and taxi stands, hoping to spot someone in need of a little lifting power. This backbreaking work makes Mr Li enough to get by, but leaves him with little left over. 'It's a living but there isn't much else I can do.' He usually shares the city's streets with droves of carpenters, painters, construction workers and shoeshine men who all hope for a bit of work.
There are not enough jobs to go around in this southwestern city of 30 million people - a place that some derisively call the world's biggest village and which has been labelled China's most polluted city. In fact, only about six million of its residents live in the urban centre while most others are farmers in the outlying regions. Many of them join the search for employment because to them the city looks a lot more promising than the farm.
Chongqing may be a magnet for labour in western China but it lags far behind the fast-growing east coast, and that is making Beijing uneasy. Beijing hopes that Chongqing and other western cities will play a role in kick-starting the hinterland's economy, and it is planning a long-term spending programme to develop the west.
'We have to reduce the gap with the east coast,' said Chongqing's deputy mayor, Zhao Gongqing. 'This is a key problem that has to be resolved.' It is a problem that touches on political stability - a sensitive issue for the Communist Party.