Like other public cemeteries, bodies can be exhumed after six years.
The food and environmental hygiene department has handled about 8,200unclaimed dead bodies in the past 10 years, according to official statistics.
October 15, 2010
Eking out a living is becoming burden
Influx of unskilled workers is putting pressure on China’s ‘stick soldiers’.
Peng Yining reports from Chongqing.
With a startup cost of just 10 yuan (1.4), joining the ranks of Chongqing’s “sticksoldiers” is possibly the cheapest business opportunity there is.
The long hours and low pay also make it one of the toughest.
In the mountains of Southwest China, where the unforgiving terrain can often maketransport difficult, “stick soldiers” - migrant laborers hired to carry heavy goods - stillprovide a vital service in this densely populated city.
Carrying just a sturdy bamboo stick and a coil of thick green plastic, Gui Laiyunwanders the streets every day from dusk until dawn looking for work.
“Getting started is easy,” said the 52-year-old. “Five yuan for the stick, five yuan for thecord.”
Customers hire Gui to carry anything from furniture and huge bags of rice to electricalappliances like refrigerators. Each time, he firmly attaches the cargo to his stick using thegreen cord and then balances it on his right shoulder as he tramps along streets, downalleyways and up stairs.
“I charge between 2 and 10 yuan, depending on the distance I carry the goods,” he toldChina Daily. “On a good day I can earn almost 100 yuan.”
However, good days are hard to come by lately, especially as more people flock to thecity from surrounding villages. Most of them have little education, making manual worktheir only option.
More than 32 million people live in Chongqing, a busy river port city on the YangtzeRiver. About 7 million workers from the countryside already live in urban areas, andaccording to a 2007 report by the city government, their numbers will continue to increasedramatically, with estimates that the rural population could be halved to 10 million withinthe next decade.
The influx of unskilled labor is expected to put extra pressure on a unique professionthat has proved invaluable since the city’s port opened in the late 1800s.
At least 30,000 stick soldiers ply their trade on the streets of Chongqing. Locals callthem bang bang jun, which literally means “the stick army”, and hail them as they would ataxi, by simply waving their hands and shouting “bang bang”.
Ages range from 18 to 74 but research shows the average for a stick soldier is about 50years old, while the vast majority did not even receive a middle school education. Althoughmost are men, women can also be spotted doing the job at farmers markets, where they areoften hired to carry vegetables for elderly people. They charge much less than men, however.
“Most bang bang don’t like to be called migrant workers,” said Chen Zixi, who is inhis third year at Chongqing University and leads a student community care society and hasstudied stick soldiers for three years.
“Migrant workers usually work for factories, learn skills and earn relatively stableincomes,” he said. “These soldiers work for themselves; there is no organization or insurance.
There may be many of them here but they all work alone.”
As part of his research on stick soldiers, Chen and his team interviewed and followedabout 250 workers to find out how they live.
Today, the student society offers free lectures on vocational advice to stick soldiers andhas also found several of them jobs or professional training with city-based companies.
“If they aren’t taught professional skills to get stable jobs, when they get too old to carryheavy loads they will have no option but to head back to the countryside with no insuranceor medical care,” said Chen.
Life on the street
Like most rural workers in big cities, Gui Laiyun sleeps in a basic 80-square-meterapartment, which he shares with about 50 other men. The beds here are made from woodenboards and rusty scaffolding. Rent is just 1.5 yuan a day.
Each morning, at about 6:30 am, the soldiers disperse to begin their daily march alongthe streets of Chongqing.
Finding work is no easy task, and according to Chen Zixi’s research, about seven to eighthours of a worker’s 12-hour day is spent idle.
Some chat or play poker on the side of the street to pass the time, while others willattempt to increase their chances by standing outside supermarkets and shopping malls.
Either way, competition for business is fierce, and anyone who shouts “bang bang” isimmediately surrounded by laborers all trying to offer their best price.
“Whoever hires us, we call them ‘boss’,” explained Gui, who sports a blue jacket thatis badly worn on the right shoulder. “We just have to be careful not to damage any of thegoods. If we do, we will receive no payment and we’ll have to pay them compensation.”
Stick soldiers return to their apartments only after the sun has gone down. The luckyones shuffle back, visibly aching from a day of heavy lifting. The unlucky ones return emptyhanded.
When Gui arrives home his room is filled with the smell of the fried vegetables and ricecooked by the landlord (each meal costs the workers 1 to 3 yuan extra). But as more of hiscolleagues return, the odor of sweat permeates the air.
There is little talking during the evening, only occasional laughter when one of the mencracks a joke or drops a bowl.
“We live here to save money, not make friends,” said Chen Liangcai, 56, as he chewedhis food next to a man washing his feed in a basin of muddy water. “I don’t need to knowanyone here. I will move anywhere I can to make money.”
Chen Liangcai swapped life in his native Quxian county in Chongqing’s remotecountryside for the city after his wife died 20 years ago. He has worked as a stick soldier eversince.
“I didn’t finish elementary school, so it was impossible for me to find any other work,”
he said. “I have two children to support.”