The museum is located in Picun Village in Jinzhan Township in Chaoyang District.
Though surrounded by high-buildings, the village has never been coveted by real-estate developers as it's right under airplanes' taking-off lines. It became a haven for migrant workers. The village has about 1,000 locals and 5,000 migrant workers.
For every ten minutes, roaring from plane's taking-off, could cover voices between speakers standing two meters away.
32-year-old Sun Heng, director of the museum and a migrant worker, has to raise his voice in speaking, "Migrant workers are large in number, but neglected by the mainstream culture. We need to have our own culture, our own voice."
The museum opened on May 1 this year, the international labor day.
"Respect work, respect the value of work. This is the basic moral of a nation," read words from Premier Wen Jiabao painted on the wall of the museum's main hall.
Under the words were second-hand exhibition cases keeping tickets, permits, fine receipt, deposit receipt, security guard work suits or crumbled governmental papers on migrant workers.
Most items were donated by migrant workers. Though the items speak about inequality and bitterness, Sun says he never thought of making it a "complaint" platform, but "if life is bitter, why shall we shun away from showing it?"
A stand to roast mutton shish kebab, a popular snack food, was donated by a migrant worker surnamed Gao. He came to Beijing in 1992 and made a living by selling roasted mutton shish kebab. Hardship in life made Gao have great affection on the iron stand he made himself. He also sold fruits or fried pancake rolled up with egg filling later and now he works to dispatch newspaper. He donated the stand that had been with him for 16 years to the museum.
A letter from a worker at a toy plant showed she missed her families very much and asked her parents to take care of themselves. Four months later, the woman died in a fire at Shenzhen Zhili Toy Plant. The fire shocked the country with 84 deaths of migrant workers in 1993.
A painting expressed a migrant child's wish. "We sell vegetables. Papa and Mama often are too busy to have dinner. My biggest wish is our family could sit and have dinner together." In the painting are a brown father, a yellow mother and a green daughter at a round table with three bowls and one dish -- a fish.
A room five to six meters wide represented residence of migrant workers. A single bed was pitched on bricks and stuffed underneath with bags, luggage and shoes. Atop a simple cabinet were instant noodles, magazines, candles and a black-white TV. A stove rests at a corner with pots, bowls and a rice bag lying on nearby ground.
"Migrant workers usually live in such narrow space. Visitors can feel their life in when entering the space," Sun says.
The museum, however, have few visitors. In the village, an old man said, "Why should I care for it? Can it be eaten or drunk?" A migrant worker at a construction site in Tongzhou District said, "it's too far and what on earth can I see there?"