Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Beggars

One thing I have noticed this time in Shanghai is the increased number of beggars. This is not an issue I have come across in Shanghai before. On Sunday night, and again on Tuesday night, I was approached by a young lady (a different one each time) who in very good English, asked me for money. On both occasions it was because they were hungry. The Sunsay girl claimed that her brother was sick and they had no money coming in; the Tuesday girl claimed she had come to Shanghai, with her friend, looking for work, without any luck. The latter girl actually asked me for 2 yuan for food. Both girls wore clean clothes, and as I noted earlier spoke better than average English. I smelled a rat in both cases, and didn’t part with any money. Call me a tight-wad, if you like; two yuan is hardly anything, but there are 1.3 billion people in China – if I had to give 2 yuan to everyone, then it would be a different story.

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