Baoji is just another pit stop along the railway network and a place far enough away from home. Some leave because their families are too poor to care for them. Others because they have been physically or emotionally abused. Some have lost a parent through death, divorce or jail and are unwanted by relatives. Whatever the case, life has aged them far beyond their years.
China is by no means the only country in Asia with street kids.
Some private groups are attempting to fill the widening gaps in the state welfare system. But there are still hundreds of children sleeping rough after being abandoned or leaving families unwilling or unable to cope with the financial pressures of bringing up a child. Take Yang Zhenzhen, whose parents died when she was five. The little girl was sent to live with an aunt, whom Zhenzhen, now eight, claims beat her and forced her to beg on the streets. In the evening, he'd buy a 2 renminbi entrance ticket to a video arcade, where he and several other street kids would shelter for the night.