Liu Hua Mei, from Anhui province, is one of Shanghai's estimated three million-strong 'floating population'. According to figures released by China's National Bureau of Statistics, more than 130 million Chinese have rural residency status, but live and work most of the year in cities.
'My new place in Shanghai isn't bad,' she said. 'My previous boss always yelled at me and only gave me a small cot pressed against the ceiling in her home.'
Mrs Liu experiences prejudice every day. 'Shanghai people look down on us from Anhui because we aren't as cultured. But it's all just luck. They're lucky enough to be born in Shanghai and have a Shanghai hukou [residents' permit]. I'm not. Without a hukou in this city my life is difficult.
'This month, I was sick and it cost me 400 yuan to see a private doctor - that's most of my income for the month gone.'
Domestic media sources estimate there are more than 180 million surplus labourers in the countryside, a figure growing by eight million people annually.
Sociologists Chen Guidi and Wu Chuntao created a sensation this winter with their book Chinese Peasants: An Investigation, which details the often difficult life of rural Anhui families such as Mrs Liu's. The tell-all book sold 150,000 copies and topped the best-seller list on the mainland before the government banned its sale in March. But it was such a hot item that a further seven million pirated copies are believed to have been sold.