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When Hou Chaolin left his hometown in Linquan, Anhui province, to seek a new life in the city in 2005, he did not expect to face even harsher conditions.
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"I was doing menial chores and getting abused by customers," the 20-year-old recalls. "Dignity was non-existent."
A year later, he became the front-of-house supervisor at a hotel bar, yet he yearned for more.
"I wanted to climb out from the lowest level of society, to take another chance," he says.
In 2006, he began studying at Beijing's BN Vocational School (BNVS), which he said marked the turning point in his life.
"My education at BNVS, which lasted a year, was the most defining year of my life," Hou says.
Located in the downtown of Beijing, the BNVS is housed in a plain three-story building with narrow hallways. It offers free one- or two-year vocational courses to children of migrant workers aged from 16 to 22. Potential students are merely required to take an exam.
Most of the students, like Hou, come from impoverished families.
Since the vocational school was founded in 2005, it has provided 600 migrant teenagers with work skills and tried to instill in them a love of learning, and for many more young adults it represents a window of hope out of poverty, according to the school's founder Yao Li.
"At BNVS we don't just teach the students vocational skills - we try to inspire a love for learning and culture," Yao says.
After one-year training in BNVS, Hou went to Beijing Bishui Real Estate Management for his internship.
"Gradually, a confident positive youth emerged. I felt born again," Hou says.
Hou now works for Beijing Yintai Property Management Company and says he will never forget his experience in the vocational school.
The secret of the school, Yao says, lies in the comprehensive way it helps students develop into responsible citizens.
Because many of its students lack the habit of learning and because their parents often do not have the time or means to attend to their children's education, the school emphasizes cultural and learning experiences to prepare them for society, Yao explains.
To this end, the school promotes free discussion and organizes cultural activities.
The school also arranges visits by foreigners such as student volunteers from American colleges, aiming at developing students' English skills as well as exposing them to the wider world.
It even holds annual Christmas Charity Balls where the students are given the chance to perform as part of the choir.
Students are overwhelmingly positive about these experiences.
"I thought poverty would never go away, no matter how hard I worked or studied," says Xie Xiaoyun, a BNVS third intake student
"The best thing that has happened to me in Beijing is that I enrolled in the BNVS. It has become a family to me."
"Teachers do not just look at your grades, they look at what you learn and if you are learning with enjoyment. This inspired the biggest reward I got from enrolling at BNVS - a new attitude towards life. We learned to appreciate life and love culture," adds Xie, who is now enrolled in property and hotel service training and has been hired by a local apartment management company.
The success of the school has led BNVS to plan to expand in four different cities in addition to its branch in Chengdu.
"As we have a successful model, we want to reach out to more migrant students," Yao says.
As for the school's role in the more distant future, Yao expects a fundamental shift.
"In 20 years, I expect the migrant situation to have improved as the people and government have become aware of the problem. By then BNVS hopefully will be offering not just free education to migrants and the poor but also interesting methods of education to all."
China Daily
