Metropolis showed me how bad my life was

The marriage between my ex-husband and I was a mistake from beginning to end and, luckily, my years of city life empowered me with the courage to wave goodbye to him and his family.

At 17, I was forced by my father to drop out of school because my family had to scrape up the money needed to build a house for my older brother in preparation for his marriage.

I ran away from home and jumped on a train headed for Shanghai, the famous metropolis, with only 20 yuan ($3) in my pocket. When I got there, I slept in parks and guarded against other homeless people who wanted to steal my money until, one day, a passer-by took me to an employment agency and I started to look for work.