Let them past

摘要

WHEN HE IS home in his native Vietnam, Nhi Quang Ninh spends part of the year on farms and part of it down coal mines. Since last year, however, he has been finding more rewarding work in southern China. The polite 24-year-old waits for a permit at a visa office in Dong-xing, a Chinese city with a beguiling old town that is separated from Vietnam by a shallow, narrow river. The job he has secured in a nearby brick factory pays about as well as his previous stints as a miner, but is a lot less dangerous.