Abstract In recent years, China has been transforming from an agricultural country to a country of industrialization, urbanization, internationalization and modernization. Reducing the number of farmers and promoting the level of economic and social development in rural areas are seen as the key points in China's social transition. Enhancing the level of education, especially encouraging postsecondary education in rural population, is expected to be the cheapest and the most operable way to reduce the number of farmers. However, the urban housing and employment distribution system makes it hard for the rural college graduates to involve in city life. At the meanwhile, the graduates are strongly influenced by the urban lifestyle, so they are unwilling to go back to rural areas. As a result, the low-income college graduates have no choice but to live in the urban villages where the house rent is relatively low. This phenomenon has become the focus of urban social space research, and it is an extension of the research of China's urban poverty, urban villages and the evolution of urban social and spatial structure. It is the group of low-income college graduates that known as "ant tribe". This paper makes deep analysis of the Tangjialing phenomenon and its aftereffect. Based on an in-depth field investigation, the paper looks at an urban village in which low-income new university graduates are concentrated. It will focus on the current situation and sociology features of the low-income graduates who live in urban villages Beijing. There are some factors which cause geographical settle down in urban villages Beijing, i. e., not to enough jobs for them, too low salary and too high rent for housing. The case study gives a detailed account of the living conditions, predicaments and surviving strategies of the ant tribe in Tangjialing, Beijing. The last part of the paper reflects on the rights and prospects of this newly emerged disadvantaged group in the Chinese city.
2012, Vol. 27 
