In the middle of nowhere amid a land reclamation site in the Chinese metropolis of Shenzhen, we climbed out of a lonely subway station and landed in the midst of a construction site. Chinese migrant workers were taking a break along a section of finished street, construction machines dug through the ground under floodlights and street vendors hawked goods such as fruit, vegetables, drinks or clothes near the workers’ barracks under the glare light of their energy-saving lamps. In the background, we saw an already finished and inhabited high-rise apartment district.