Urban Poverty
China’s economic boom has succeeded in expanding the upper and middle classes but has also left many citizens behind. The gap between China’s wealthiest and poorest is constantly increasing; at present the top fifth of wage earners are receiving fifty-percent of the income while the bottom fifth receives less than five-percent. Thirty million Chinese live in absolute poverty while another 60 million live on less than 865 Yuan ($109) per year, which is well below the dollar-a-day standard for poverty established by the World Bank.
The disparity between China’s rich and poor is particularly severe when the thriving urban centers are compared with the poorer rural areas but is increasingly evident within the cities themselves. It is a common site in Chinese cities, both large and small, to see the disabled begging for change, young children reduced to working as street performers to help support their families and the elderly scouring trash bins for plastic bottles to recycle.
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I was in China ten years ago for about six months.
I never once saw anyone begging on the streets. Do you think that the lives of the poor are worse now than then? That now it is worthwhile begging given that there is opportunity to ask people for money when previously that was not? That sounds hard. Life is certainly hard there. A paradise it is not. I hate stereotyping people. I am a Scot and I loath the way we are viewed by others but my view of the people there, allowing for my petty little zenophobic moments and the fact that there are so many different ethnic groups stretched over a such a huge land, is that they are incredibly tough and resilient.
I have been back twice since then and it is incredible how fast things are changing. But is the side by side incongruities that get me. Satellite dishes, the latest mobile phones with “hello kitty” covers and then toilets with notices that ask you to pee only. If you need to shit you have to walk around the block to the communal facility.
Anyway, one particularily surreal moment was in Kunming ten years ago. A whole class of immaculately dressed schoolchildren were on the street carefully scrapping the moss from between the cobbles with chopsticks. How things have changed.
I am really enjoying your journey, your words and, of course, your images.
[…] The project is in the form of a photoblog and is easily navigated by using the archives section to view individual posts. You may also use the categories to focus in on a particular city (Beijing, Shanghai, Chongqing, etc.), theme (minority groups, rural china, architecture, etc.), focus (religion, urban poverty, pollution, tourism, etc.) or region (north, south, east, west). For a quick overview of the project the “best of” section is particularly useful. To view the entire project, click here. […]
I recently visited China during the summer of 2006 … and in almost every city I visited I saw begging such as this. Although, I didn’t visit citys such as Beijing, or Hong Kong.. which are more westernized, which may be why less begging is seen. However, I strongly suggest traveling to China, their citys are huge, and shopping mall are like none I’ve ever seen!
this is horrible to let these people go through this the world should be ashamed for the wrong we let happen.
I think what these people have to go threw is a very sad and pittyfull thing, but i think that the world we live in with so much money, we should help out these ones in need. Insead of spending ou money on starbucks or itunes songs we should give our money to ones who really need it. Our buy things for these people. I think we live in a country that does what ever we want to do with out paying attention to how much our counrty is falling
i have never been in china i live in newfoundland on an island called bellisland i think that there should be something done about the poverty in china there should be a couple shelter’s for the poor and the rich should give to the poor well thats what i got to say i wish i could say more and i really hope something is done about the poor in china your’s truly brittany jenkins