School Children. Yunnan, China.

Lijiang lies in rural Yunnan, West China. Living conditions are hard and many workers migrate to industrial cities in the East looking for better job opportunities. Unfortunately, distance and working hours are long and many couples with young children leave them back home at the care of relatives. China’s household registration system, or hukou, deters parents from bringing their children to the city as they would not be eligible for schooling or other social benefits. Parents send money back home for food and clothing, but with neither the time nor the means to return in person, they are absent for long periods. The education of the children is therefore trusted mainly to grandparents with little or no education and all the problems this carries. China has more than 60 million left behind children, according to official estimates.