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19 March 2024

Land where beggars are choosers - of 5-star rooms, branded goods

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By Staff

Tales of beggars roaming around in Land Cruisers and living in posh hotels aren't limited to one region in the world.

A recent report in the Nanyang Business Daily reveals how ‘professional’ beggars live the high life, shopping at high-end stores such as (ladies, hold your breath) Cartier and earning as much as (guys, it’s your turn now) Dh53,000 a month.

A Nanyang photographer who tailed three ‘senior’ beggars in Zhengzhou, China, made these starling discoveries about their lavish lifestyles

The daily’s photo collage titled ‘A day’s life of China’s professional beggar’ has gone viral online, sparking a debate on the morality of giving alms to random beggars instead of donating to a certified charity.

The photo essay shows a ‘family of beggars’ starting their day by eating hamburgers for breakfast at a fast-food restaurant; beef and beer for lunch, watermelon and popsicles for tea, and dinner at a fine dining restaurant in a five-star hotel.

It also suggests that they shopped at high-end luxury stores such as Cartier.

Some of the same beggars who would usually go about eating their meals with a hearty appetite would, while being ‘on-the-job’ pretend to be sick and lay on the ground while another would plead to passers-by for money.

The essay accompanying the images suggested that a ‘senior’ beggar could earn between RMB$2,000 and RMB$3,000 a day, which works out to about Dh53,850 a month.