Beijing at Its Most Unfiltered! Homeless and Jobless Crowds Sell Blood Just to Stay Alive

At 4 am, while the rest of Beijing is still asleep, Ma Jiuqiao's commercial street in Tongzhou is already filled with voices. This is the largest gathering place for day laborers in northern China. Under dim yellow street lights, thousands of struggling workers, wrapped in warm padded coats, stand in the bitter cold. They're hoping to earn enough to get through another day. The screech of a van pulling to the curb draws a shivering crowd. People rush forward, competing for a handful of temporary jobs. The young and strong are quickly taken away. Older workers retreat to their street corners, spending yet another morning waiting with little hope. A local saying goes that the wealthy wouldn't live in Tongtianyuan, but anyone down on their luck will eventually end up in Ma Jiuqiao. For many ordinary people who've gone bankrupt, lost their jobs, or fallen into debt, Ma Jiuqiao is their last refuge when they have nowhere else to turn. But it's hardly a shelter. It simply gives them a place to sell their labor cheaply enough to survive. Many need 3 days to recover from a single day's work. After a video about it was taken down, Ma Jiuqiao's day labor market, running for more than 30 years, is back in the spotlight. On October 25, content creator Feng Ge Wandering the World posted a video on Bilibili showing his experience working day jobs in Ma Jiuqiao. He has nearly 10 million followers across platforms. The 25-minute video documented ordinary daily life, Narrow alleys, noisy sidewalk stalls, cheap restaurants, and homeless people. Yet this account of a day in the lives of ordinary poor people drew more than 2.7 million views in just one day. Then it sparked an enormous reaction across social media. But soon afterward, officers from the local police station came to Feng Ge's home to question him while he was livestreaming. By October 27, the video had been removed from platforms across the internet. Authorities in Ma Jiuqiao also tightened controls to keep crowds of other creators from filming there. Negative news about the area online was replaced with so-called positive energy videos. Feng Ge, real name Zou Lifeng, is a former programmer known for unfiltered videos about Shenzhen Sun He gods, unfinished apartment buildings, and indebted middle-class families. He became known for showing reality without filters. Even this seasoned creator repeatedly told viewers during a livestream that his visit to Ma Jiuqiao had frightened him. He said conditions there were even harsher than being on the front lines and far more brutal than the lives of the Sun He gods he filmed years earlier. I filmed Ma Jiuqiao, but honestly, I have to tell everyone that this episode probably can't be released. What I filmed is so extreme that I could be detained after posting it. That's how serious it is. So originally, there was no way I could put this video out. I still say, let's show it to the leaders. Let's show it to the leaders. It's hard to release, really hard. I filmed things I should and shouldn't have filmed, and honestly, it was terrifying. If this had happened in Shenzhen, I'd have no problem publishing it. But since happening in Beijing, I think I need to show some awareness of the situation. There's really no need to take that risk." After repeated urging from fans, Zou Lifeng extensively re-edited and self-censored more than two hours of original footage, eventually releasing a version about 25 minutes. Even this heavily sanitized version, which viewers joked had been censored layer by layer, Survived online for only two days. One viewer lamented the absurdity of a world where a video showing an ordinary day in the lives of poor people could end up banned. The video feels a little like the 1990s. The difference is that back then, the future held hope. Now the future looks bleak. Another viewer said the footage was so realistic that it contradicted the authority's image of a thriving society. On China's domestic internet, poverty and struggle aren't allowed to be seen, and telling the truth has become forbidden. The viewer thanked Feng Ge for capturing such a real and heartbreaking scene. Truthful videos are suppressed, the viewer said, while people who pretend not to see the problems continue singing praises. The viewer called that the ultimate absurd irony and expressed support for Feng Ge. The controversy didn't end there. On Halloween night, Feng Ge appeared in a commercial area near West Lake in Hangzhou. Amid the crowds, security personnel quickly spotted him and escorted him away. Videos of the incident spread rapidly online, and internet users mournfully dubbed his Ma Jiuqiao trip Feng Ge's last dance. In reality, what Feng Ge filmed in Ma Jiuqiao was only the tip of the iceberg. After 7 am, relatively easy jobs such as security work are mostly gone. The roadside is then filled with recruiters hiring people to sort parcels and and load trucks. They shout at the top of their lungs, if you're really desperate for money, try it for a day, we guarantee you'll regret it. That promise of regret comes from workers' own bitter experience. Parcel sorting usually runs from 7 am until after 8 pm for only about 200 yuan a day. At the conveyor belt, they can't stop for even a second, spending more than a dozen hours mechanically lifting and throwing heavy packages. By the end of the shift, their legs are numb and their backs hurt so badly they can barely stand straight. They may need two full days in bed to recover. Around 9 a.m., another group appears in the market. These people seek out workers who urgently need money and recruit them into shady or illegal businesses. The most rampant trade involves buying SIM cards and bank cards. Criminals exploit workers who can't even afford a meal, paying a few hundred yuan for cards registered under their real names and reselling them to fraud rings overseas. Many give up their cards just to buy food, then they're held criminally responsible for assisting online crimes without even knowing what their cards were used for. Others offer money for facial scans through various apps. Like selling SIM cards, this amounts to selling personal information. According to one online account, a person buying SIM cards offered 700 to 800 yuan per card, always in cash. He carried a bag and two phones and took orders from Myanmar. A server would call one phone and he'd use them to purchase SIM cards to call victims. He defrauded people of hundreds of thousands of yuan before finally being arrested. Another commenter described a fool who not only bought other people's cards but also registered more than a dozen himself. He was detained for 37 days the first time and came out thinking it was no big deal. After being detained a second time, nobody saw him again and the commenter didn't know how many years he was sentenced to. The commenter added that prison might actually be better for someone in that situation. Outside, he never knew where his next meal would come from. Inside, at least he'd be fed regularly. Because these illegal deals are so widespread, phones get stolen a lot in Ma Jiuqiao. When a phone is stolen, its SIM card can be sold to card dealers, and the phone itself can also be sold after being reset. Beyond the card trade, underground blood brokers roam the streets. Because the formal blood donation process is complicated, they entice desperate people to sell about 13.5 fluid ounces of whole blood for roughly 700 yuan. Then they resell it for 1,300 yuan or more, making a Making a substantial profit. Other criminal groups promise large interest-free loans or high-paying jobs overseas, but they're actually trafficking people. They target workers at the labor market who urgently need income and may not recognize the danger, then lure them to Southeast Asia to work in an online fraud operation. There's no shortage of homeless people sleeping on the streets of Ma Jiuqiao. In fact, it can be hard to tell homeless people apart from the day laborers known as Sun He Gods. For people living on unpredictable daily wages, Ma Jiuqiao has developed a whole range of very cheap ways to get by. Food. The cheapest option is to search trash cans for leftovers, which some call opening treasure chests. Roadside vendors sell basic box meals for 5 yuan, while 12 yuan buys a filled meal with two meat dishes and two vegetables. A step above that are all-you-can-eat mini hot pots and chicken casseroles costing 30 or 40 yuan. Although these may come with poor quality meat, knock-off drinks and heavy food additives, exhausted workers may still see them as a feast. Shelter Free places to sleep include streets, spaces under bridges, public restrooms and parks. Although urban management officers frequently drive people away, some fast food restaurants including Wallace and Mr. Lee remain open overnight and allow people to sleep inside. Security cameras there also means their phones are less likely to get stolen. One Wallace restaurant owner was especially kind. He kept the lights on and air conditioning running at night so people could escape the cold and charge their phones. But some took advantage of him, occupying seats and enjoying the air conditioning in broad daylight without buying anything. Eventually, he cut off the electricity, turned off the air conditioning, and stopped offering overnight shelter. His kindness was used up by the people who abused it. Those who could pay stay in rooms rented by the day. These offer some of Beijing's cheapest beds. 50 yuan for an upper bunk and 20 yuan for a lower one. Men and women sleep in separate areas, with seven people crowded into a room. They're cheap, but they attract thieves and are full of bedbugs that hide in wooden boards during the day and come out at night to bite. Clothing and washing. People can often find clean discarded clothes in trash cans, including uniforms thrown away by delivery riders changing jobs. At secondhand street stalls, an old padded coat costs 30 yuan and used pants cost 15 yuan. In summer, people wash with cold water from public restrooms. In winter, they pay to use public bathhouses. Haircuts For a free haircut, people can let their barber apprentices practice on them. Cheap options include 5 yuan haircuts and 10 yuan express cuts at supermarkets. A somewhat better option costs 20 yuan for washing, cutting, and styling. Unlike most places, Ma Zhuqiao has an unusually large number of public toilets along its streets. Some, however, are completely neglected and are little more than rural pit latrines. The area also has 19 lottery shops, as many as its supermarkets and restaurants, with two or three on a single street. Lotteries are sometimes called a tax on the poor. After being squeezed so hard by life, people look for something to believe in, and buying lottery tickets becomes their only fantasy of a way out. In the evenings, informal street stalls appear. Many sell power banks said to be from confiscated at airport security checkpoints for 20 or 30 yuan apiece. Others sell phones. The cheapest are mostly second-hand handsets at roadside stalls for about 150 yuan. Some are stolen phones that haven't even been reset. Higher-end options include used flagship Xiaomi phones for 400 to 500 yuan. Local phone shops also let people pawn their handsets for cash. But many customers never come back to redeem them. Ma Zhuqiao itself is small. Just across the river is Yi Zhuang, where you can see JD.com's headquarters, packed with factories and logistics parks that need temporary workers. That's what draws people here from across the country. The population density here is staggering, with job seekers from the northeast and from the provinces such as Sichuan, Yunnan, and Guizhou. About 80% are middle-aged or older men. 15% are young men and 5% are older women. Young women are almost never seen. The few you do see are often live streamers using poverty to grab attention. With people under intense pressure and quick to lose their tempers, arguments with crowds gathering to watch are common sight on the street. This constant movement right beside a high-tech development zone creates a strange prosperity built on poverty. Another Bilibili creator previously made a documentary featuring an interview with Ms. Hu, a worker in Ma Zhuqiao. It showed how especially hard life is for middle-aged and older women working in this male-dominated world of heavy manual labor. Qingfeng Island, I'm 53 years old this year. I'm from Qinhuangdao in Hebei province and I'm 53 years old. Normally I should be retired by now but I'm not. I'm a farmer. Young people have a hard time finding work these days too so we older people have to help them out don't we? Sometimes there isn't any work here. There's none today and they have age requirements. Even for the same day jobs it's hard to find work once you're over 60. Pay rates have fallen this year. The same jobs all would pay less. But you can't just stop working. This is the only work available. If you don't do it, you say he's spending your savings on food and everything else. Once that's gone, you can't go home and ask your family for money, can you? The whole reason I came out to work is that my family isn't doing very well financially. Ms Hu says she usually works as a cleaner, earning 100 to 200 yuan a day. The best-paying period is around the Lunar New Year, when she can make more in one day than she normally earns in two. That's why she waits until after the holiday to return home each year. Ms. Hu also describes the hardships women face here. They earn less and have to deal with harassment and physical assault from some labor contractors. I'm going to take advantage of his authority. He uses his authority to hire women. If he sees one he likes, he starts touching her. He hints that he will get her better jobs later. If she's willing to go along with it, he'll let her work a few more days. If she refuses, the next day he says, we've got enough people, we don't need you. If she gets involved with him, he will keep giving her work. But when someone he likes better comes along, he will distance himself from her. If she gets upset, he'll stop hiring her. I ran into a man like that once. I was late and he helped me get a hard hat and safety vest. We walked into a very dark basement. He was taking me to another building to work. I was walking ahead when he suddenly grabbed me from behind. Then we reached another dark spot and he pinned me against the wall. I was furious and slapped him across the face. I told him, if you do that again, I'll call the police. Being treated unequally because they're women leaves female day laborers with even fewer ways to survive. With food, housing, transportation, and other unavoidable expenses to cover, many form temporary relationships with male workers in similar circumstances. Others solicit customers on the street. In fact, day labor markets like Ma Jiuqiao exist in cities large and small throughout China. Economic growth is slowing sharply. The property sector is collapsing. And traditional manufacturing is moving overseas. As a result, large numbers of migrant construction and factory workers are losing their jobs. Food delivery, ride-hailing, parcel delivery are already saturated, leaving day labor markets as one of the few remaining options. In places such as Songjiang in Shanghai, Tianhe Guangzhou, Luzhang in Zhengzhou, and Chengdu East Railway Station, crowds of job seekers gather every morning before dawn. This is Songjiang District, Shanhai Province. This is a migrant workers' station in Shanghai Songjiang District. It's almost 7am. Look at how many people are still here. It looks pretty hard to make a living here too. There's so many people. It's 4 o'clock in the morning. It's just after 4am. This is one of Shanghai's largest labor markets. Every morning before dawn, hundreds, even thousands of people gather here, hoping for a chance to earn a living. Whenever a job opening is announced, the whole crowd suddenly comes alive. Even the mornings when the temperature is below freezing, nobody dares let up. People summon all their energy, try hard to sell themselves, and push forward desperately to get into a recruiting van. If they aren't chosen, they'll have no income for that day. I've been coming here for 20 years. Really? Do you come here every day? Every single day. About what time do you leave home each day? When there's work, I leave at 5am. If there isn't any, I go home. If you're living in Shanghai now, how much does it cost you per month? Rent is about 1,200 yuan. What you spend on food depends on what you can afford. You can make do with two steamed buns, or you can cook a plate of vegetables. Do you know what kinds of jobs people usually come here to do? No, that's why we come every day. The same scenes play out again and again in day labor markets elsewhere. This is the labor market. One boss comes looking for workers, and a whole group of women rushes over to ask for jobs. That's what labor markets look like now. They're packed with migrant workers. It's really hard to find work. Once construction slows down, jobs become scarce. Apartments aren't selling, and that directly affects our work. There's almost no construction work left. I was born in 1958. I'm 67 now. I've been through every kind of hardship. These days, I mainly survive on odd jobs. The most I can make is 150 yuan a day. In some days, there's no work. I made 150 yesterday, but nothing today, so that's only about 70 yuan a day on average. My wife has a disability affecting her legs and can't move around. There are seven people in our family, and tuition for my three grandchildren costs tens of thousands of yuan a year. I can hardly ever afford meat. I just buy a steamed bun and have it with a bowl of watery rice porridge. My rented place costs 6 yuan a day. It's a tiny shed built onto the outside of a building. About three feet wide and less than six and a half feet long. Just enough for a plank bed. I'm telling you, it makes me want to cry. There's nothing I could do. A simple wooden bed just big enough for one person. A bowl of thin, oil-free porridge. They reveal the bleak old age facing an entire generation of migrant workers, who spend their youth building China's high-rises. Workers can grit their teeth and get through grueling physical labor. They can even bear the fear of not knowing where the next meal will come from. But what hurts most is being separated from their families and rarely seeing them. In today's society, families are torn apart. Take my family. The four of us are in three different places. One is in Shanghai, another in Suzhou, and I'm back in our hometown. Isn't that a family torn apart? Back when life was hard, I still felt happy. No matter how difficult things were or how much we suffered, that wasn't real suffering. Emotional pain is the worst kind. Not eating or drinking well isn't the worst part. It's the pain inside that really hurts. Although labor brokers take a cut of day workers' pay, at least workers usually get paid when the job is finished. Longer-term jobs can be a very different story. I've been here for 62 days. My husband is seriously ill. He finished the work he did for this man, but the man just refuses to pay us. We can't afford medical treatment. And what started as a minor illness got worse because treatment was delayed. Is there no justice at all? All of this reflects a wave of structural decline unlike anything China's economy has faced before. In this economic downturn, the deepest suffering isn't just going without the basics. It's losing every hope of a better future. People used to say that hard work could make them prosperous. One or two generations willingly took the dirtiest, most exhausting jobs so their children could get ahead. But today, university graduates deliver takeout, middle-aged workers scramble for day jobs paying little over 100 yuan, and people in their 60s and 70s still endure the cold to earn enough for a day's food. People are beginning to realize that the path to changing their lives through hard work is slowly closing. Since 2021, the authorities have gone from targeting commentators accused of talking down the economy To treating economic criticism as a national security threat, by 2025, even pessimism was a crackdown target. No matter how good things look on screen, the day laborers huddling against the cold wind in Ma Zhu Chiao at 4 am are still there. They're a reminder that behind the story of development, countless people are doing everything they can just to survive.