A new local government measure that targets rough sleepers has prompted debate about how they are treated, report Xu Jingxi in Guangzhou, and Hu Yongqi and Zhang Yuchen in Beijing.

Zhou has been living rough in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong province, for 22 years. An open space beneath an overpass in Baiyun district has been his home for 20 of those years.

He exists by selling bottles he finds in the street. The small amount he earns this way is just enough to allow him to buy water, instant noodles and other daily items.

In 1990, he worked at a construction site in Qingyuan, also in Guangdong, dreaming of making his fortune and returning home proudly. However, when his employer delayed payment for seven consecutive months Zhou fled the site, afraid that he had been employed illegally. So he spent a week walking to Guangzhou without a cent in his pocket and surviving on his wits.

Although he can earn roughly 1,000 yuan ($160) per month, he has never considered moving into a residential complex because the monthly rent of 500 yuan for an apartment is beyond his means.

But Zhou's way of life is now under threat. The local authorities have embedded cement pyramids in the concrete below the overpass, making it impossible for the homeless to sleep there. The move is part of the city's plans to drive all the homeless from its cities by the end of the year, according to the local TV station.

However, the government's actions have sparked intense discussion about whether homeless people should be treated with more respect.

No return

At first, Zhou didn't go home because he felt it shameful to return without having saved a decent amount of money. He gradually got used to being a tramp. "I can't go back now," he said.

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.

A way of life

Cao Duoyun, 68, lay on a mat with her husband Wang Changliang below the Haidian overpass on Beijing's Fourth Ring Road. They were begging for donations to buy train tickets, each costing 180 yuan, so they could go home to Hebei province. However, a large part of the 10 to 20 yuan they make each day is spent on food and water.

Wang has had a cerebral embolism (a blood clot on the brain) for five years. Despite many trips to the hospital in Shijiazhuang, capital of Hebei province, his condition is unchanged. Last year the couple spent all their savings on treatment. Finally, in May, Cao borrowed 1,000 yuan as a last throw of the dice and the couple traveled to Beijing.

However, the doctors told them that the condition might not be cured even if they spent 100,000 yuan. Lacking funds, Wang admitted defeat. "I can't make money anymore and I don't want my wife to borrow," he said.

The couple has criss-crossed the Chinese capital in search of donations. Cao said they encounter many professional beggars in the course of their travels, most of whom are healthy and are simply taking advantage of the kindness of strangers.

Some of these "homeless" have rented a basement apartment and go out looking for donations on the street, lying on the ground like beggars. It has become a kind of job for them, said Cao.

On July 16, 10 people who couldn't speak or hear were discovered begging from visitors to the Beijing Capital International Airport. Some travelers donated cash, but others called the police.

The police said that a woman from Hebei province, surnamed Su, had been organizing the begging patrols, driving the men to the airport in the early morning and then collecting the cash raised later in the day. In a single month, she earned more than 50,000 yuan.

"Su recruited the men from Hebei and Hubei provinces, claiming that they could make good money," said Jiang Chao, an officer at the Beijing Airport public security bureau. "But actually, they had to give all the cash to her."

Su was detained on charges of coercing the men to beg illegally, but has yet to face court proceedings. All the men were released.

In 2011, the local authorities in Shenzhen, an industrial hub in Guangdong, began to categorize the homeless, basing the help they received on the reasons they ended up on the street. Those whose unfortunate circumstances were shaped by mental or physical disability received more aid than people who simply didn't want to work. The idea caught on rapidly, and in April the government of Yichang in Hubei province followed suit.

Hu Zhenhua, director of the Shenzhen Institute of Urban Management, said homeless people can solicit donations, but have to be overseen.

Homeless people with diseases or disabilities should be given shelter at social assistance stations, providing they don't hassle people or disturb the peace in their quest for cash. However, organized begging is deemed unacceptable, he said.

In August 2009, five ministries, including the Ministry of Civil Affairs, pushed through a new regulation on the management of the urban homeless. Any professional beggar hassling others and affecting the urban environment would face a crackdown. Vagrants unable to find a place to live could resort to social assistance stations for free accommodation.

"Our officers encourage homeless people to get help from social assistance stations. If they don't want to, the officers are forced to move them from vehicle lanes and sidewalks where they could easily get injured if cars run into them," said Zhang Jianjun, deputy director of the inspection team at the Shenzhen bureau of urban management.

Shenzhen's policy that urban management officers would be fined if any vagrants were found on the street was abolished in July, after it was criticized by netizens.

In 2005, the Guangzhou city government set up teams to patrol every district and county to provide help for vagrants at social assistance stations.

The downtown branch of Guangzhou Salvation Management Station can accommodate 300 vagrants and the patrol team takes 30 to 40 people to the social assistance station every day.

"Generally, local governments should be lenient toward the homeless because most of them are underprivileged," said Li Yingsheng, a professor of sociology at Renmin University of China in Beijing.

Hard to implement

In 2005, foreign visitors to Guangzhou complained that beggars at the hotels and airports grabbed their legs and refused to let go until they were paid, said Zeng Peng, a patrol team director at the downtown branch of Guangzhou Salvation Management Station. "Our presence can disturb their 'begging business' by regularly patrolling the streets," he explained.

However, Zeng and his team have been shown the cold shoulder on many occasions, such as the time a man found eating leftovers from a trashcan declined food and water offered by Zeng's teammate.

According to regulations, homeless people have to ask for help to receive any sort of aid, thus making Zeng's work difficult. He said the patrol team often spends hours attempting to persuade homeless people with serious illnesses, mental disorders or who exhibit violent behavior to request assistance.

"Our biggest headache is the beggars and rag pickers. China has no law forbidding begging or rag picking," said Zeng. What's worse is that some culverts in the city have become dens for drug addicts and criminals such as thieves and robbers.

Zeng's work can be dangerous: Vagrants often attack the patrols, throwing stones at them or cutting them with knives. Zeng said that around 30 such incidents occur across the city every year.

Better administration of the homeless requires not only new laws and regulations regarding begging and rag picking, but also the improvement of the social welfare systems in the rural areas, he said.

"The local governments in these areas should offer sufficient help to poverty-stricken local people so that they won't need to travel to another city to make a living by begging or rag collections," said Zeng.

However, whatever changes are implemented, they won't make much difference to Zhou Yongquan. "The years of being homeless have made me accustomed to all the things here. I don't want to go back to living in a house or an apartment. What I really want is more help from the government instead of more administration."

Contact the reporters at huyongqi@chinadaily.com.cn, xujingxi@chinadaily.com.cn and zhangyuchen@chinadaily.com.cn