In 2010, a series of employee suicides cast a dark cloud on Foxconn Technology Group and its most well-known partner Apple, Inc. Over the past four years, the company that puts the finishing touches to Apple's popular iPad and iPhone products, has had to reboot its own image.

We are now running a series of stories that focus on everyday life of Foxconn workers, including in-depth reports, amazing photographs and wealth of data that capture and reveal the struggles and achievements of men and women who toil day and night so that we can have latest iPads and iPhones. 

Photo story: A day at the Foxconn frontline

It's 8 am on a Thursday. Foxconn workers are coming off work after a long night shift, brushing against those preparing to start their day shift. With breakfast in hand and headphones in ears, the young employees rush to work with blank, expressionless faces.

The workers walk past the security check point in blue and purple uniforms and punch their cards at its headquarters in Shenzhen. >>>> 

Photo story: China faces at core of Apple products

"Sometimes I look at iPhones that people use, people who walk pass by me on the street or on TV, and I think to myself that I probably made that one." - Jiang Caixia

"Foxconn is not a sweat factory as so many claim.... The opportunities here are good that's why I'm where I am right now." - Sun Xiaoli

"No talking, no listening to music while working....I'm so sick of working here. I just don't see the end of the monotonous work and life." - Lu Erfeng >>>>

Foxconn soldiers on in Shenzhen

With two swimming pools, neatly manicured lawns and nice utilities, Foxconn's Longhua facility in Shenzhen is recognizable as a factory only by the uniformed workers who stream in and out.

There are other tell-tale signs as well. For example, the rooftops of some of the tall buildings are ringed with nets, perhaps inspired by the 18 attempted employee suicides the company suffered in 2010. >>>> 

Company wages new kind of 'war'

Morning's barrage of calls is nothing new. According to staff, the care center gets an average of 1,300 calls and 100 in-person visits each day.

Reasons behind the calls are also no surprise. The Taiwan-based company established the center four years ago, after a string of high-profile suicides, to address workers' mental health issues.

The consultations are free and the hotline is open 24/7. >>>> 

Photo story: Stitching small dreams in a big city

Working on a 10-hour shift, she was busy stitching clothes the whole time we were talking. Sometimes she would stop when talking about her little girl, look up, smile briefly for a moment, and again hunch back in front of her sewing machine and keep working.

Although she does not have health insurance, she makes 4,000 to 5,000 yuan per month. She prefers to work in manufacturing workshops like this one, where there’s no contract and she can come and go whenever she wants. >>>>

The dream and reality for young Chinese workers

Be it through corporate confidentiality, or the barriers of culture and language and distance, much about the professional and private lives of Chinese workers remains a mystery even today.

Five years after Time magazine named the Chinese worker runner-up in its annual Person of the Year award, China Daily reporters takes readers inside Foxconn and behind closed doors of businesses across the nation, for a glimpse into the lives of the ordinary people driving the world's second-largest economy.>>>>