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150 million migrants from China's countryside now crowd into the cities.

But they don't have the same legal rights as city dwellers.

I'm Mukul Devachand, and now for assignment on the BBC World Service, I'm in Guangzhou in southern China,

telling the stories of an increasingly angry migrant mega city.

In front of me a troop of dancers is on a stage in a courtyard amid the smog of the Pearl River Delta in southern China.

In front of them there are a few hundred migrant workers from the factory here. They're being encouraged to learn dance moves.

This whole thing is a display meant to keep the workers happy.

The truth is some of the workers aren't happy.

There's been a wave of strikes, protests and even riots in this region.

I'm about to go into a restaurant now to meet the leaders of one of the biggest ones.

Hi, I'm Mukul. I've got three guys with me. They're young, 22 and 30 inside the older chap 48.

Do you think this happy music represents how you feel about things here?

Of course not. Outside it's all song and dance, but inside we're working so hard.

Our country is developing so quickly, but we migrant workers seem not to be sharing in all the fruits of that progress.

We went on strike to get back what we deserve.

Yang, a young man in blue overalls, surprises me with his bitterness.

He came here from rural Hunan province at age 17, dreaming of continuing school.

Instead, as an uneducated villager, he ended up working 70 hours a week for around 60 pence an hour in a watch factory.

Now he's among workers who shut the factory down for 11 days and clashed with the police over pay and conditions.

...