ZHANGCUN - Xiao Yun and Xiao Bo are, in many ways, typical rural Chinese kids.

Padded with layers of woollen long underwear against the winter cold, the brothers go to school, play at break time with the other kids and help in their family's fields.

Xiao Zhou, a first-grade pupil whose parents work as migrant workers all year long, nibbles at a steamed bun under the eaves of a house in a town in Shaoyang County, central China's Hunan Province, February 6, 2007. Like many children left at home by migrant parents, Xiao Zhou is looking forward to a reunion with her parents during the Spring Festival. [newsphoto]

But when the 11 and 12-year-old return to their small cave home -- still common for many on the edge of the Loess Plateau in China's northwestern Shaanxi province -- there are no parents waiting for them.

Instead, the two are cared for by their 15-year-old sister.

Their mother died when the boys were small. Unable to support three children on the income brought in by the family's apple orchards, their father spends most of his time in the provincial capital of Xi'an, working as a labourer.

"We're sad when he goes, because my dad looks after us," Xiao Bo said, scuffing dirt along the ground with the toe of his shoe.

The two boys and their elder sister are among a lonely group that has become known as China's "left-behind children", an estimated 23 million children who are cared for by a single parent, grandparents or sometimes no one at all, while their parents migrate to cities in search of work.

Researchers say these kids are also at risk of being left-behind emotionally.

"The most important problem is actually a psychological one, because the families of these left-behind children are incomplete," said Ye Jingzhong, a professor at China Agricultural University who has done extensive research on the issue.

Household Hardships

Yangyang, 13, hasn't seen his father for three years.

His father has worked on a construction site in Changsha, in the central province of Hunan, for the past seven years, and recently has not had the money or the time off to return home.

"Our household had some difficulties and the economic situation was very hard," Yangyang said, explaining why his father had to go. "I really miss him".

Some of China's 150 million migrant workers take their children with them to the cities, as Mao-era restrictions on residency have loosened.

But for millions, it is too expensive to bring their families, and between job insecurity and housing at construction sites or factory dormitories, it is often simply untenable.

Average incomes for the 1,500 people in Zhangcun are about 1,000 yuan (US$128) per capita, mainly from apple orchards and some corn and wheat crops.

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