Embroidery helps women stitch a future

In 2010, Guangzhou's gross domestic product hit a record 1,000 trillion yuan ($160 trillion), putting it in third place among cities on the Chinese mainland, following Shanghai and Beijing.

That year, Wei Zuying, a migrant worker, left Guangzhou. By then, she and her husband had worked far from home - a small Miao village in Guizhou province, in Southwest China - for 10 years. In that period, they got the chance to see their families only once or twice a year. "It was sad that our son and our parents were left at home without my husband and me around," says Wei, 38, whose son is now 13 and daughter is 6."But it was not only us. Everyone in my village had left their children and parents behind."

This situation prompted Wei to return home where she started an embroidery clothing factory and shared her experience of running the factory with local people. The embroidery business led by Wei helped raise incomes and made it possible for women in the town to work near home.