At 70, migrant worker Zhou Lefu is happy to live in what looks like a cupboard, despite the fact the freezing weather wakes him in the night.

A man stands on a construction site in front of the container homes in Yuelu district of Changsha, Central China's Hunan province. [Photo/Xiaoxiang Morning Herald]

His two cotton quilts offer little warmth for Zhou, who works with dozens of other people at a construction site in Yuelu district of Changsha, Central China's Hunan province, the Xiaoxiang Morning Herald reported Wednesday.

Dubbed online as the "cupboard tribe," the old man said he wishes to rent a room for himself but the cost in Changsha, where the rent for a single room is around 400 yuan (US$60) a month, is far beyond what he can afford.

The shelter is made from a container and has five bunk beds with the upper only one meter from the ceiling.

The humid air and a lack of heating proves challenging, if not a nightmare for the workers to stay warm in a place where the maximum temperature is about 1 degree Celsius during the day.

The cupboard, provided to Zhou and his colleagues for free, costs the construction company six yuan a day, according to the leaser surnamed Tan, who said he is from Shenzhen and rents more than 100 such containers every month on average due to the cheap price.

"People like me who can't afford to buy an apartment are definitely willing to live in this place, it is cheap and convenient," said a man surnamed Liu.

But to a woman surnamed Guo, this is merely a reflection of the reality of the cruelty migrant workers endure. "If there are more low-rent apartments and workers can afford the costs, no one would prefer to live in this container," Guo said.