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Refusing 10 More Times
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The Sun in China
January 3, 2008 - 12:13amIn our five days in Beijing, which included visits to tourist sites and non-touristy businesses and restaurants, only two people approached us asking for money. We were regularly swarmed with people selling goods from fake Rolexes to Olympics swag (and once for a massage as we walked by a tattoo parlor at night), but there were virtually no visible beggars. Shanghai has been notably different. A short walk on the river front (the Bund) was filled with people asking us for handouts; some even tried to grab us to get our attention. As we walked out of a nearby bar later that evening, three well-dressed women picked up their small children and ran over to us to ask for money; a group of about six people swarmed us a block later. Like in the U.S., it is difficult — if not impossible — to tell which people truly need money and which people are simply trying to win sympathy. The presence of so many people asking for money, however, exemplifies the economic divide in Shanghai, and China in general; some people have accumulated immense wealth, but many more remain incredibly poor.
The Economic Divide in China
Please don't overlook the reality behind Chinese income statistics. Some have accumulated immense wealth, but, in fact, all but a few of the "rich" in China are living at a standard far below their counterparts in the USA. True, the income of white collar families in Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen or Hangzhou is dozens of times the income of the subsistence farmers who make up much of the country's population, but the standard of living behind the high multiple doesn't begin to even approach that enjoyed by the families of most Cornell students. The reality that I saw during the five years that I lived in Shanghai (I'm still unpacking) is likely to be a 80-120 square meter, two bedroom apartment with a rudimentary bathroom and small kitchen in an uninsulated building that is heated and cooled badly by room HVAC units. Single glazed windows allow in much of the street noise outside. Moreover, there will be regular problems with improper and undersized electrical wiring and poorly installed plumbing, due to an overall lack of observed construction standards and properly qualified contractors. With luck, the apartment will have an elevator and the family will own a car. It's no bed of roses.