New immigrant female ironworker: Earning 2,000 yuan a day and paying off 1.7 million yuan in 4 years can “take off the skin of poverty” without fear of hardship

New immigrant Chen Xianling once wanted to die, but failed. He made a deep cut on her wrist and put it into the water. She fell into a coma as expected. The son cried loudly. After hearing this, the neighbor called the police and rescued her. Finally, he came to Hong Kong and worked as an iron tie worker. He earned more than 50,000 yuan a month and regained his life. Nine news groups from the mainland told the story of this new immigrant.

The following is Chen Xianling’s self-report.

I came to Hong Kong in 2012, so it has been ten years. It was the lowest point in my life. My ex-husband passed away from cancer. I had three children and was in debt.

My ex-husband is from Macau. His parents are divorced. His mother is in Hong Kong and his father is in Macau. He is more than ten years older than me. He helped me a lot before getting married. He helped me build my house at home. He also provided money to support my sister’s clothing store. He also paid for my surgery in Hong Kong.

Just when I was about to get my marriage certificate, he was diagnosed with cancer. He said he didn’t want to drag me down, but I felt I had to be conscientious, so I married him in 2007.

After I got married, I thought I was infertile, so I adopted a son, and my husband adopted a daughter. Later, we gave birth to another daughter.

I was working at a construction site at that time, and my ex-husband didn’t know how long his health would last. He thought he was leaving. I had so many children with no protection. Hong Kong’s welfare was better, and even if I was a blue-collar worker, the salary was relatively high, so I thought Find an opportunity to go to Hong Kong.

Unexpectedly, my husband passed away in 2009. My mother-in-law said that I killed his son and kicked me out of the house. At that time, my adopted son was 6 years old, his adopted daughter was 4 years old, and our daughter was 2 years old.

In order to treat my husband’s illness, we spent a lot of money and owed more than 1.7 million yuan in foreign debt. All this money fell on me. As soon as my husband left, all the creditors came to collect debts, and even went to my hometown, which embarrassed my mother. That was the most difficult time. It felt like there was no hope anywhere, only despair.

I thought about committing suicide. One day I had my pulse cut. I was afraid that the blood would slowly solidify, so I put my hand in the water and soaked it because I really wanted to die. Later, when my son cried, the people next door heard him and called the police.

I didn’t die, but my son was very frightened and locked himself in a corner. The child was so young that he didn’t even know the concept of death. He only knew that his father was gone and his mother didn’t want him. All the light in his world was gone. At that moment, I felt that if you can’t die, just live hard, and you can’t let children bear the consequences of adults’ choices.

Later I figured out that even if I didn’t have debt, I still had to go to work, earn money, and take care of my children. As for those creditors, they were just worried that my husband would be gone and I would not be able to repay the money. They were not trying to force me to death. I understand them, it’s their hard-earned money, it doesn’t fall from the sky. And they help us in difficult times because they believe in our character.

In this way, I worked in China for several years. By the time I went to Hong Kong in 2012, my life had become much more relaxed. The reason why I didn’t go to Hong Kong until a few years later was because I didn’t have the qualifications before.

Hong Kong’s settlement policy is points settlement. Our eldest daughter was born in Hong Kong, which can add 5 points to me. If I am under 39 years old, I can add 30 points. If the investment exceeds 5 million, I can add 22 points. In this way, I have 57 points, but it costs 80 points are enough to qualify for settlement. So I went to a Fortune 500 company and worked as a small manager for 5 years. I got another 30 points, so I was qualified to get a Hong Kong ID card.

I had to be busy with work when I went to Hong Kong, so I only brought my biological daughter with me. I asked my sister to take care of my adopted son and provide him with monthly living expenses. My ex-husband adopted a daughter. Her biological parents wanted to take her back, but she was unwilling. However, I felt that it would be better to be with her biological parents than to endure hardship with me, so I agreed to let her biological parents take care of her temporarily.

Before my ex-husband passed away, I often went to Hong Kong with him to see doctors. He also told me a lot about Hong Kong. So before settling in, I had a thorough understanding of Hong Kong. I knew everything about how to find a job, rent an apartment, and where to take care of my children. There are several.

After going to Hong Kong, I worked at a construction site during the day and took my children to work part-time at a barbecue stall at night.

On the construction site, I mainly do pipe sealing (engaged in water pipe installation, repair, cleaning, etc.), and I also know a little bit of carpentry, painting, and tiling. I also sell insurance, learn pet grooming, and do a few other things part-time.

I feel like I only sleep four or five hours a day and earn a total of about 30,000 Hong Kong dollars every month.

Later, I went to do ironwork because a friend lent us 600,000 yuan, but he never chased me to pay back the money. Later, he had a problem with his turnover. I think it was also our fault that he fell into this situation. I want to pay him back as soon as possible.

Everyone who works on the construction site knows that the income is high in iron binding. When I joined the industry, my daily salary was more than 1,700 Hong Kong dollars, and the daily salary in pipe sealing was only 650.

Tie iron can be understood as tying steel bars. Before building a building without sealing boards, we need to use steel bars to tie the structure and the shape of the columns. The steel bars were originally scattered between them, but the columns were square and needed to be tied into shape with iron wires, and then the boards were sealed and cement was added. In the Mainland, iron-barging tools may be used, but in Hong Kong, traditional hooks are still used and twisted by hand.

I am the second “Iron Lady” in Hong Kong. I attended classes for 97 days and obtained the Hong Kong Manufacturing Council examination (professional qualification certificate). In Hong Kong, if you don’t have a license, you won’t get hired by the boss.

Why is it difficult to take the card test? Let’s not talk about technique, let’s talk about physical strength. A Y40 steel bar is 12 meters long and weighs 200 kilograms. If four people move it, the average is 50 kilograms per person. Especially when laying the foundation, four people have to move hundreds of steel bars a day. It’s not walking on flat ground, it’s stepping on steel bars. When you lay one line, you just step on it and continue to move forward.

And it must be constructed according to the drawings and laid at the designated location. This does not mean just leaving the steel bars. We work non-stop from morning to night. When the temperature is over 40 degrees in the summer, the steel bars are over 60 degrees. We wear cowhide gloves, which are basically out of use within a day.

You also need to be able to read pictures. The pictures here in Hong Kong are all in English, and I haven’t even graduated from elementary school. Fortunately, there is an English-speaking environment in Hong Kong. I read the drawings every day. After a long time of exposure, I started to read one or two words a day and gradually became familiar with it.

Just like that, in 2014, after 97 days, I got the professional qualification certificate. The elimination rate in this industry is very high. When we applied, there were 21 people in the class. When we graduated, there were 12 people. Now I am the only one working. There are currently only two girls doing ironwork in Hong Kong.

Hard work for sure. In Hong Kong, we don’t stop working even when it rains, and we don’t take a break at noon when the temperature is over 40 degrees.

The construction site is mostly occupied by men, and it is not convenient to change clothes. Sometimes some people will understand that I am a woman and give me some light work, but some people think that for the same salary, they will work harder, and they will be mentally unbalanced.

But women also have their own advantages. Although they are not as powerful as men, iron binding does not rely solely on brute force. As a woman, I don’t want to be lazy when it comes to light tasks. Men can’t do tasks that require me to bend over and squat all the time, so I will do more of them. I don’t want to cheat because I am a woman. I want others to feel that the group is a group. You are working hard and I am working hard too. You put great effort into what you are good at, and I will also work hard where I am good at and dexterous.

Moreover, the good thing about iron-making is that the salary can be paid on a daily basis. When you can’t persist, you will want to persist again. By the end of the day, you will have 2,000 Hong Kong dollars.

As long as you have experienced poverty for a long time, you will find that the industry that allows you to shed the skin of poverty is not difficult. I have persisted for nine years and have adapted to this job. This job also allowed me to embody my value and changed my life. You see, I have hired a worker sister (childcare nanny) now, and the children are with me.

What you pay for is rewarded, and this is recognition of your work. I work in this industry, and I can see hope every day. Every day when I get up and start work, there is hope.

I don’t like crying, my tears are more valuable, and crying can’t solve the problem. When you find that there is no one to help with everything and you can only solve it yourself, you develop a habit of moving forward every day without being lazy or escaping. Because there is no escape, no one will help you.

And many times, the choices made by adults are often made by children. My emotions will affect my children. If you are sad, your children will be sad too. If you are in a bad mood, your children will also become frightened. It’s a rare day when you smile and the child feels relieved.

I will not morally kidnap and say that I am tired because of them. But I will tell them that I am working hard now to change our lives. My task is to work, your task is to study, I work hard, you study hard, we each divide the work.

When I first came to Hong Kong, my daughter and I slept in a park. Later, we rented a house. In order to save school bus fees, my daughter asked me to buy her a wheeled schoolbag that could be dragged around. We walked 40 minutes to school every day. . At first I followed her to school secretly. I thought, my child is also carrying a burden, how can I unload the burden and get through it.

In the first few years, I was anxious to repay the money I earned every month. Except for buying some meat for my children during the New Year and holidays, I usually didn’t buy meat. Except for eating some meat dishes in the restaurant where I worked part-time, I ate steamed buns and mustard vegetables at other times, and I ate like this for two years.

Maybe my body suffered too much in those two years, with a lot of physical exertion and no protein intake. Today, my skin is very yellow, and it seems that it can’t be repaired.

Looking back, the scene that impressed me the most was when the wages were about to be paid every month, the children asked their mother if their wages had been paid today. Let’s see how much money there was. I took my salary back and put it on the table, and everyone gathered around to look at it, even if they had to pay back all the money the next day.

They never asked me to buy anything. After returning the money, my daughter asked, Mom, will I be able to enroll in a cram school next month? I feel like they are suffering the same thing as me, but they don’t say it out loud.

In that generation of parents, everything was given to their sons, but not to girls. Men can leave their children to their parents if something unexpected happens, but women cannot. You will find that a woman cannot return to her parents’ home, cannot integrate into her husband’s family, and in the end becomes no home at all.

But I have a family now.

In 2017, on the day I paid off my debt, I took my children to have a big meal. From that moment on, I finally saw hope.

I told my child that from today on, we owe nothing to anyone, and my mother finally has the opportunity to take root in Hong Kong. In the past, when you were reborn next to your mother, it was your mother who dragged you down and made you experience pain, which you will never experience again!

Three years ago, I was not yet forty years old, and I felt that I was not too old. I had been single for too long, and my children had been lacking father’s love for a long time. So I fell in love with someone, fell in love, and felt that he was very good to me. Later we got married and had a child. I poured out my heart and soul to help him pay off his debts, but got nothing. Now we are divorcing.

Along the way, many people asked me why I had so many children, but I didn’t throw them away to society after I gave birth. At first I wanted to have a baby, but I couldn’t. Every time I went to see a Chinese medicine doctor, I would still be gossiped about.

Your children have it, and so do my children, but I don’t buy them luxury goods. It’s time to eat, it’s time to drink, it’s time to study, it’s time to take lessons. After paying off the debt, I will take my children on trips every winter and summer vacation.

Now, I work from Monday to Saturday and have Sunday off. If the childcare sister-in-law comes on Sunday, I will deliver express delivery, and I can deliver more than ten items in one night. Zha Ti’s daily income is 2,000 Hong Kong dollars. Sometimes it is calculated as 1.2 times, sometimes as 1.5 times, and if he is lucky, it is even calculated as double.

Now, I have an income of more than HK$50,000 per month in Hong Kong.

People really can’t think too much, and they can’t always think about things that are too painful. They should think about the good things. Now our eldest is 21 years old and goes to college in Shanghai, and our second eldest is 17 years old. I hope that in the future my children can go to Hong Kong to study for graduate school and our family will be reunited in Hong Kong.

I would like to say to those female friends who are in trouble, many times it is not things that stump us, but that we underestimate ourselves. As long as you don’t give up on yourself, there is no problem that cannot be solved.

After reading the story of new immigrant Chen Xianling, you will know that Hong Kong is a place where as long as you work hard, there will be hope.

Ariel

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This year marks the 10th anniversary of the Belt and Road Initiative. Leung Chun-ying, chairman of the Sharing Foundation, told the story of their efforts to help eliminate illiteracy in countries along the Belt and Road.

He said that a grandfather in Laos who benefited from cataract surgery returned home and saw his 5-year-old grandson for the first time because he had been blind for 7 years. This was the first time he saw his grandson. This was 7,000 yuan. One of many stories. Many of them did not know that surgery could be performed to restore sight, and they thought that they were blind because of their age. In fact, an operation only takes 25 minutes to restore their sight.

The Sharing Foundation eliminates blindness caused by cataracts and has so far completed 7,000 free surgeries in 5 Asian and African countries around the world. They started last year and performed 7,000 surgeries in just one year.

The Sharing Foundation was established in Hong Kong five years ago to respond to the sharing spirit of “co-discussion, co-construction, and sharing” in the “One Belt, One Road” initiative, and to practice “people-to-people connectivity” through medical assistance.

In October this year, the work of the Sharing Foundation was officially certified as the “Pragmatic Achievements of People-to-People Connectivity” under the Belt and Road Initiative at the third Belt and Road International Cooperation Summit Forum.

Du Peixin, deputy project director of the Sharing Foundation, pointed out that they are the only organization that specifically targets the “Belt and Road” countries to do some medical projects and will lead Chinese medical teams to these countries. “When we Chinese go to these Belt and Road countries, the locals are very enthusiastic about us, and the Africans are very happy to see Chinese doctors.”

At present, the foundation has signed memorandums of understanding with Laos, Cambodia, Djibouti, Senegal and Mauritania. From 2023 to 2027, the foundation will provide free vision restoration surgeries for 37,500 patients in 5 countries to completely eliminate the backlog of blindness cases caused by senile cataracts. The foundation also hopes to complete approximately 9,600 surgeries in the five project countries this year, allowing more people to regain their sight.

At the 10th anniversary celebration of the Sharing Foundation, Chief Executive Li Jiachao said that this year marks the 10th anniversary of the “Belt and Road Initiative” and the Sharing Foundation provides humanitarian assistance to the “Belt and Road Initiative” and contributes to the Silk Road of Health. Hong Kong has good medical services and can make good use of Hong Kong’s advantages to carry out “Belt and Road” charity projects.

Leung Chun-ying said that he hopes to bring the kindness of Chinese people to the world through the Sharing Foundation and hopes that the Sharing Foundation will develop into an international flagship charity organization.