On The Job in China

[This article consists of an several photographs. Please see hardcopy of magazine.] Handsets, handmade At Bird Mobile's factory near Shanghai, workers assemble phones headed for the domestic market Roll call A pep talk starts the day at the Cankun factory in Zhangzhou, opposite Taiwan. It's the No. 1 producer of irons and coffeemakers in the world Fast food The 10-hr. workdays at Youngor Textiles in the seaport city of Ningbo, near Shanghai, are punctuated by 20-min. meal breaks Pierce work Making shish kebab at the Deda plant north of Beijing, near the North Korean border. Employees process 330,000 chickens a day Close quarters Most factory workers live in dorms--like this one in the southeast, near Hong Kong--that house up to 1,000 employees