Unusual Chinese Jobs, a Top-Ten List

Unusual Chinese Jobs, a Top-Ten 

There never ceases to be things which surprise, delight, or inspire me here.  I have noticed that everyone in China has a job.  (Or two or three.  The prediction that China will become *the* world economic power by 2020 is not a surprise to me, seeing the amazing free-market-enterprise and cultural work ethic which are present here).

Here is my top-ten list, à la David Letterman:

10.  Monkey beggar (see post, "Monkey Business")

9.  Omelet guard.  There was an additional person watching the chef at the Hotel "TianAn Rega" (our hotel in Beijing) that ... well, I'm not really sure what she did.  Prevented omelet-theft?  

8.  Street cleaners.  These people work round-the-clock to make sure that you could eat off of the streets, no matter which city you are in.

7.  Panda-hat vendors. (I need to write about panda-hats in another post).  Add to 7b - random souvenir sellers.  It hasn't nearly gotten to the level of Paris-Eiffel Tower vendors, but these people often have several jobs.  Hey, if you could sell keychains to help your savings account, why not? (Chinese typically save **70%** of their income.  Americans, wake up.)

6.  Critter-market vendors and chefs (see post, "To Market, to market").

5.  Transportation assistants.  We would call them "drivers."  They drive taxis, bread-trucks (see post, "Taxi!"), rickshaws, and these metal carts which look like food-stands but are meant to carry people.  Apparently, these are expensive and illegal.

4.  Travel-agents.  We ran into a lot of these in Beijing.  They will find you in the park, strike up a conversation, ("rich Westerner," even though they don't come out and say it.  I'm not stupid), and try to sell you everything ranging from a van-ride to the Great Wall to imitiation silk-screen paintings.

3.  Street-barbecuers.  These are not to be confused with the critter-market vendors.  This is a serious business.  They usually appear in popular-crowded streets at around 9 PM.  They have crowds around them (the locals seem to really know which ones to go to!) and they sell everything from tofu and vegetables to skewers with rice.  Well ... depending on how many critters are walking around ... they may have more in-common with #6.  And every time I see a dog walking around the streets without an owner, I say a silent prayer for him to *not* walk by any restaurants ... Street-barbecuers, according to my Chinese inside-source, make about $5,000 per month.  Which is more than some PhDs make in China (or the US for that matter).

2.  Light-operators in performance venues.  Oh my goodness, this has been quite an adventure.  We played one concert, which we had to start late, because no one was there to turn the lights on.  Obviously, I wouldn't mention which concert this was.  The concert eventually happened, with proper lighting.

1.  Street-choir karaoke director.  I have run into these everywhere - community of amateurs singing, sometimes a cappella, sometimes with a loudspeaker-boom-box.  I always stop and listen.  

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Kristin Ditlow
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215.527.4237
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