Gonggong Village

Xu Lihua seems never to have lived for herself. To pay for her son’s treatment, she rode a tricycle all the way from Henan to Beijing, begging along the way. To rent a rundown house in Gongfuzhuang, she clutched her crumpled bills and pleaded with the landlord. To survive, she scavenged spoiled vegetable leaves at the market and ran a stall in the freezing wind. People cursed at her and chased her away, but she never shed a tear. Then, in this crowded urban village, she met Fang Xingguo and his wife, people who had suffered just as she had. She saw others struggling in the mud, just like her. She realized she wasn’t carrying the burden alone. On the coldest winter nights in Beijing, these strangers understood and helped one another.