No Loose Change? No Problem! Beggars Are Going Cashless, but You Risk Giving More Than a Few Pennies.
Mr. Zhang was running late for work.
This would be the second time this month, which meant a visit to the manager’s office. That was the last thing he wanted.
As he rushed towards the crowded station in the Chaoyang District to catch his connecting train a small, elderly man in a worn-looking blue jacket stepped into his path.
As the man lifted a small white styrofoam cup, Mr. Zhang immediately blurted out “sorry, I have no loose change at the moment.”
A few short years ago this one comment would have ended the interaction between Mr. Zhang and the down on his luck gentleman.
Not today.
No sooner had Mr. Zhang apologized for not having any spare change had the man lowered his cup and thrust forward a card which displayed a printout of a QR code.
That’s right. Beggar’s in China are moving with the times.
If you’re a westerner like me, you probably think this sounds a bit, well, weird.
And you’d be right, to us in the west it is weird. It’s not something many of us see on the streets of our cities, but then we don’t live in a country which has been described as the closest…
