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A beggar casts a long shadow as he waits for change from inside a Beijing underpass, 04 October 2001. Millions of rural and poverty-stricken migrants flood Chinese cities in search of a better life and the recent lifting of rules governing residency permits will help dismantle a system that for half a century made the rural majority second-class citizens and stifiled millions into poverty. China claims to have lifted 220 million people out of poverty over the past two decades but there are still 30 million people living beneath the poverty line in rural areas. AFP PHOTO/Frederic J. BROWN (Photo by FREDERIC BROWN / AFP) (Photo by FREDERIC BROWN/AFP via Getty Images)