Beijing to Clear 'Uncivilised' Elements from Subway Stations

Agence France Presse - July 6, 2007

Beijing plans to start clearing beggars and other "uncivilised" elements from major city subway stations next week as it continues sprucing up for next year's Olympics, state media reported on Friday.

Enforcement teams will begin patrolling four key lines on Monday to chase out the beggars, peddlers and performers who flock to subway stations during the summer to escape the city heat, the Beijing News said.

"This behaviour is disturbing normal order and impacting the passenger situation and subway environment," the paper quoted an unnammed official with the Beijing Mass Transit Railway Operation Corporation as saying.

Any found to have broken any laws or regulations will be turned over to authorities, it said.

Virtually unknown in China 20 years ago, beggars, the homeless, street musicians and peddlers hawking everything from maps to fake dvd's are becoming much more common across the capital.

The phenomenon is partly due to the economic reforms that have created a huge wealth gap and a loosening of social controls that have allowed an influx of migrants from rural areas.

The beggars, hawkers and the homeless often take to protected areas such as subway stations during Beijing's cold winters and humid summers.

Beijing will host the Olympics next year in August, one of the hottest month's of the year.

Other press reports said in March that Beijing planned to round up undesirables and ship them out of the city as part of Olympic clean-up efforts.

It would expand holding centres for beggars, hawkers, operators of illegal taxis and other lawless elements, who would then be shipped back to their home provinces, in an operation set to begin sometime this year, the reports said.