When he was 17, Wang Weiguo found himself planting cotton at the edge of the Taklimakan desert in China's far western region of Xinjiang, a world apart from his home in cosmopolitan Shanghai.
The year was 1963 and patriotic zeal had prompted him to volunteer to tame the frontier. Tens of thousands of young Shanghainese heeded the government's call and went to the borderland as pioneers in the 1960s. 'We were patriotic,' Mr Wang said. 'We were innocent. It's not like now.'
More than three decades later, some returned to the city of their birth to live out their twilight years. But they feel forgotten and neglected by the government that sent them to Xinjiang , since many have been unable to secure adequate pensions.
With the same determination that allowed them to transform desolate land into productive fields, the returnees have organised a weekly protest for the past three years to seek higher benefits from the Shanghai government.
Recent revelations that corrupt Shanghai officials were stealing from the city's pension fund have increased their anger. The scandal has already ousted Shanghai's top leader, party secretary Chen Liangyu .
'We ought to receive the same treatment as Shanghai workers,' one returnee said. 'The government must take responsibility for its past mistakes and give us compensation.'
An estimated 100,000 Shanghai 'educated youth', their ages ranging from below 16 to the mid-20s, went to Xinjiang from 1963. The decision to send them was reportedly made by Wang Zhen , then a vice-premier who eventually rose to vice-president.