"Starting work today? Please come in," the Metro director at Shanghai People's Square Station said to the one-legged father and his four-year-old daughter who were lying on the ground and begging money from passers-by.
The father had been displaying the stump of his leg to commuters at the station while his daughter was asleep at his side - the noisy, suffocating station was definitely not a healthy place to be.
Some one-yuan coins were on the coat the father had placed in front of them.
The interview with them was stopped by the Metro director and the man stood up quickly using crutches and picking up his coat and the money. He and his young daughter followed the Metro director with terrified expressions on their faces.
They were fined 20 yuan (US$2.4) for coming to beg inside the Metro Station for a second time.
Earlier in the day, a foreigner had complained to Metro staff asking why nobody in Shanghai was helping the disabled man.
The Metro director, who refused to be identified, said to the father while writing out the fine sheet: "You are destroying Shanghai's image, don't you know? Never come back again."
The director then told the Shanghai Star not to believe anything the crippled father had said.
The father, Hei Xiangjiang (Black Xiangjiang River, a strange and probably fake name) said he was 33 years old and had come from a village near Qingdao in East China's Shandong Province.
He said he had arrived Shanghai about a week ago and he and his daughter were living outdoors near Shanghai Railway Station.
Without having any basic living facilities, the father and daughter smelled unwashed.
"We clean ourselves with water from the fountains at some city squares," Hei said.
He said he was originally from a family that had been fairly rich and he had once owned a truck, hoping to earn money by transporting goods for villagers.
However, his truck had run off a bridge into a lake. He lost his left leg cut and his wife had run away with another man.
Medical bills took all his savings and he owed more than 10,000 yuan (US$1,207).
"I can get 13 yuan (US$1.57) every month from the local government as a living subsidy but it is impossible to feed my daughter on this and I can never pay off my debt," he said.
"I heard that Shanghai is a big city and there are lots of people here so I thought I may be able to earn some money. I was very unwilling to beg for money."
He found that inside the Metro station it was cool and he and his daughter had got into the station over the railings when Metro staff were not around.
On being asked how he would be able to live outdoors in the coming cold seasons, Hei said he hadn't thought about it.
He said he only wanted to pay off his debt, save enough money to live on and pay for his daughter's education later on.
He pointed to the crutches, which looked new and clean, and said that his old crutches had been broken into pieces by a Metro staff member who had warned him not to stay in the Metro again.
Hei said: "The director today is not so bad - he only fined me 20 yuan (US$2.4). Others would have confiscated all my money and said 'I hope to see you again'."
He told the Shanghai Star that on a good day he can make about 100 yuan (US$12) if he could beg in a busy part of the city.
On hot days, he begs from 4:00pm when the temperature starts to cool down.
Sympathy profit
Hei and his daughter were sent into the station through a free pass and asked to leave.
But where would he go? The Metro director and Hei didn't give clear answers.
"I have the responsibility to keep the station in good order, but whether he will go to another station or whether he will beg on a train, I don't know," said the director. "Someone else will be in charge of that."
He displayed some regulations stuck on the wall, referring to measures to be taken against anyone disturbing order in the station.
"We only fine those who kept infringing the regulations after being warned - like Hei," he said.
Hei had wanted the Shanghai Star to ask the Metro company a question for him: "I wonder whether it's legal to treat disabled people like that?"
However, the director still mistrusted Hei's story.
"I'm sure he is lying. All his money was hidden in the two sleeves of the coat in front of him. I once wanted to touch the coat and he protected it desperately. I deal with coins in my work every day and I can figure out how much money the sleeves contain - at least 100 yuan (US$12).
"After the coins outside pile up to a certain amount, he puts them into the sleeves and just leaves several on the outside of the coat to get people's sympathy."
He said beggars have become more presumptuous since the Sun Zhigang affair. Sun, a university graduate, was beaten to death by detention centre staff in Guangdong Province earlier this year. The media widely reported the incident and China's policy on the detention and removal of itinerants was reformed.
The reporter met the father and daughter again begging at the same place the very next day.
'Cold-hearted'
Who can tell whether Hei's story is true or not? However, Shanghai residents have become much colder towards beggars after finding themselves cheated so many times by similar "touching" stories.
Zheng, a taxi driver, said he seldom gave money to street beggars except elderly or disabled ones.
"At least they have lost the ability to work for a living," he said. "I would guess that about 70 per cent of beggars are fakes."
On a 100-metre stretch of road in Pudong District near the Dongchang Lu Metro Station, a vendor said at least five disabled teenagers - two girls and three boys - regularly begged for money.
"They turn up earlier than we do and they leave later," the vendor said. "But I think they are in a group and somebody picks them up at the end of a day."
The young beggars move back and forth on the road all day.
The Shanghai Morning Post recently reported that the disabled children were being "taken care" of by a boss beggar who sends them out onto the streets by taxi and who later picks them up.
They begin "work" at 7:00am and go home at 9:00pm and they make about 200 yuan (US$24) a day.
(Shanghai Star Aug 14, 2003)
