Pyramid scheme hits the homeless

Zhou often earns about 40 yuan in a morning, but that barely covers the price of his lunch. He usually takes a nap in the early afternoon and then reads discarded newspapers. Once a month, he buys a ticket for the sports lottery.

"Personally, I would rather spend the money on cigarettes," said Huang Xiangfu, one of Zhou's "neighbors". The 62-year-old rag collector always buys the cheapest smokes, costing 2 yuan a pack.

Sometimes Huang lives with his son, but his aversion to the smell of leather at the factory where his son lives means he's more often to be found on the street. "This place (the overpass) is much better than my shabby house in my hometown in Henan province," said Huang, adding that he prefers open spaces and only returns to his son if the winter cold is too much to bear.

"I often give away empty wine bottles to the rag pickers across the road out of sympathy. But their presence affects the environment and threatens public security on the street," said Zhang Huanyin, 36, who owns a grocery store opposite Zhou's overpass.

Zhang said the street looks unsafe for outsiders and the tramps' collection of second-hand furniture could cause traffic accidents.

"Some tramps are thieves and robbers and harm passers-by. They should be driven away. But I don't think it's justified to drive us rag collectors away," said Shi Lei, a homeless man, who was the victim of child trafficking gang, having been sold by his uncle when he was just two years of age. "We just collect refuse and do nothing wrong."

"The hundreds of cement pyramids lined up under the overpass present an ugly picture and violate the beauty of the city," said Zhou.

Seven years ago, he saw cement pyramids embedded below an overpass in the Baiyun district of Guangzhou. "Tramps used to sleep under that overpass, but after the cement pyramids were set up they moved away," he said.

"Guangzhou is a big city. There are so many overpasses, I can always find a new place," said Zhou, adding that the local government should use its funds to build shelters for the homeless instead of simply driving them away.

Every day they beg for donations to buy train tickets so they can return their home in Hebei province. [Photo/China Daily]