Scavenging in a Quieter City
On social media, videos showing quieter streets and a growing homeless population have been circulating.Chen Hong has lived on the streets of Beijing for several years, getting by by collecting recyclables and discarded food. He says the change over the past two years has been stark.
He has watched the homeless population grow, he said, and grow younger. Where people scavenging used to be mostly elderly, he now sees many in their 20s and 30s—people who lost jobs and were never able to find work again.
Not long ago, Chen said, a loop past the recycling bins near Beijing West Railway Station could bring in a few dollars’ worth of plastic bottles. “Now the trash bins themselves are gone,” he said. “And even if you find one, there’s nothing inside.”
Leftover food has disappeared as well. When restaurants were busy, Chen said, half-eaten meals and untouched takeout were common. “Back then, we could eat our fill,” he said.
These days, he often eats just once a day. “It’s already afternoon and I haven’t eaten yet,” he said. “I wait until evening so I won’t be hungry at night.”
As foot traffic and restaurant crowds thinned, Chen said some homeless people turned to selling blood to survive, something he began seeing around 2023 and 2024. Many later disappeared, he added, and he doesn’t know what happened to them.
Out of Work: Living on the Basics
For families facing unemployment, daily life in Beijing has been reduced to the basics.Jin Xiang, who has lived in the capital for nearly four decades, is now out of work. His family depends entirely on his wife’s income. “We cut out anything we don’t absolutely need,” he said. “It’s about putting food on the table. Eating out, entertainment—all of that is gone.”
He says the slowdown is even visible in everyday shopping. Cheap fruit goes unsold and rots in markets. “When produce is this cheap and people still won’t buy it, farmers suffer too,” he said.
Among younger people, Jin notices a growing sense of resignation. Some have stopped looking for work altogether, relying on parents or consumer loans to get by. “When people don’t see a future,” he said, “they stop trying.”
That pullback is visible across the city. Streets that once felt crowded, even outside rush hour, are now noticeably quieter. Popular shopping areas are dotted with “for rent” signs. Several large malls have closed, and those still open often feel empty. “In some places,” Jin said, “there are more clerks than customers.”
Jin points to a combination of business closures, layoffs, and the city’s high cost of living, especially rent, which makes it hard to stay without a steady income. He also notes stricter identity checks and long-standing policies that discourage migrants from settling in the capital.
A Fragile Recovery, by the Numbers
Economists say the strain described by residents shows up in two areas: consumer spending and employment.Official figures show that Beijing’s retail sales in 2025 fell below levels recorded in 2022, when the city was under strict COVID-19 lockdowns. In other words, consumption in a fully reopened economy was weaker than during the height of pandemic restrictions.
Labor market pressure may also be greater than headline figures suggest. While Beijing’s surveyed urban unemployment rate remained largely unchanged, the city’s unemployment insurance fund slipped back into deficit in 2024. Analysts say such shifts often signal mounting stress before job losses show up in official unemployment data.
Taken together, Huang said, the numbers point to structural weakness rather than a temporary slowdown. And because Beijing sits at the center of China’s political and economic system, he added, the pressures visible in the capital may be an early warning for the rest of the country.
“If Beijing is this weak,” Huang said, “conditions elsewhere may already resemble a true downturn.”