Portraits of Chinese Workers

Cao Bin, 20, from Chengdu, Sichuan
While most migrant workers long for home, Cao Bin is glad to be gone. He left Chengdu, in Sichuan province, two years ago and hasn't been back. Chengdu is one of the most pleasant cities in China, but Cao thought it was boring. "That town is too lazy," he says. "I wanted to go somewhere where life is faster." In Shenzhen, where the economy grew by an average of 27% annually between 1980 and 2006, he found the furious pace he was looking for.

• Ben Bernanke: TIME's 2009 Person of the Year