Cheap Labour

Today I had lunch with a colleague who told me she recently moved.

She didn't have much furniture to move, but mostly clothes and her things. They all fit into about 10 big boxes and some big plastic bags.

She called a moving company to help her transport her stuff to her new place.

And she was amazed to see the two men lift several boxes at once. She thought they wouldn't be able to carry so many at one time, but they did -- and bring them down the stairs from the fourth floor, as her apartment building has no elevator.

They were so proficient at their job that the move into the van only took about 10 minutes.

Then they transported the boxes to her new place, which has an elevator.

All that labour was for only 240RMB ($34.70). She felt so sorry for them that she gave them 300RMB.

And I thought labour was so cheap that the municipal government could afford to put traffic patrolmen in many parts of the city.

But instead Beijing relies on mannequins too.

Check out the above picture and there's a statue of a man dressed in blue uniform and an orange reflective vest near the construction site at the third ring road.

He's been standing there for quite a while, making sure cars slow down.

Perhaps no one wanted to work in that particular intersection, or the hours were bad?