Read: China’s great leap backward

China’s government values the stability its economic miracle has delivered, but this is only one part of an evolving story. The party is aware that life satisfaction must become part of the equation, especially for migrants such as Liu who have yet to meaningfully feel the trickle-down of China’s economic success. President Xi Jinping has argued that the nation and its leaders must be concerned about more than economic growth. The basic needs of hundreds of millions of people have been met, but China’s leaders must now turn their attention to the unhappiness felt by Liu and others. Where do people such as Liu, who abandoned their rural origins to support China’s economic transformation, feature in the government’s plan for the future?

The UN World Happiness Report found that migrants in Chinese cities were less happy than people who stayed in the countryside, but the idea that moving brings success is still powerful. The city inspires hope, whereas rural China is seen as a relic of the past: When Google first launched in China in 2006, it did so with the transliteration Gu Ge, which means “valley song.” Executives thought it was a charming and innocuous reference to the country’s beautiful landscapes, but internet users balked at the bucolic allusions at a time when many people were trying to leave behind the pastures, characterized by poverty, famine, and want.

In reality, migrants’ problems in China’s cities are manifold, but fall into three main categories: urban, social, and economic.

Migrants often find themselves particularly vulnerable to urban development, and one suffocating phenomenon is inescapable—the smog. Beijing has a bad reputation for this, but the worst offenders are lesser-known cities in the adjacent industrial heartlands. Baoding, a city in Liu’s native Hebei, has average pollution levels 7.5 times as high as the limit recommended by the World Health Organization. A recent study of Chinese cities found that pollution has a negative effect on happiness; for migrants who are more likely to work outdoors in industries such as construction and logistics, there is no relief from the toxic air.

For white-collar workers in Beijing and elsewhere in China, the solution is to buy air purifiers for their home and office. But the appliance can cost upwards of $100, or about a fifth of the average monthly migrant salary. Along with paying for food and sending money home, migrants must contend with a housing market in which tenants have few rights to complain about landlords who increase rents. In fact, migrants, including Liu, often rent with nothing more than a verbal agreement. In major cities on China’s east coast, migrant workers spend, on average, about $150 a month on rent for less than 16 square meters (about 170 square feet) of space, plus a shared bathroom and kitchen.