Meet your man in the street

I ♥ SHANGHAI

Features
Thursday, 16 October 2008 04:10
Written by Grace Zhang & Rosemary Zhu

They are the unsung heroes of the city, but who do you call when your shoes need mending, when your wheel is punctured or when your favorite dress needs a new stitch? We talk to the professional handymen (and women) who can fix all our domestic woes.

Street Barber

NAME: Lu Changbao
Age: 70
Where he's from: Shanghai
Where he works: Jiashan Lu by Yongjia Lu
Working hours: 7am-5pm
Years of trade: 18
Monthly income: RMB2,000.
Monthly rent: RMB300 per month.
Cost of service: RMB4
Describe your loyal customers: I have many. They usually come every half-month.
Strange experiences: I cut the hair of a baby, the first haircut of his life. But I have also cut the hair of his father and his grandfather!
Do you charge more for foreigners? Yes, I will charge them more because they are rich, right? RMB10 will do.
How do you like your job? It is hard. I live near Shanghai South Railway Station so it takes me half an hour on the bus to get here every day.

Bicycle repairman

NAME: Yang Weigen
Age: 47
Where he's from: Taizhou, Jiangsu Province
Where he works: Entrance of Lane 749 Yuyuan Lu, by Zhenning Lu
Working hours: 7am-7pm, every day
Years of trade: 18
Monthly income: RMB5,000
Cost of overheads: RMB100, including a hammer, a wrench, and more.
How much does your service cost? RMB1-20. My service includes pumping up the tires and fixing broken bicycle frames.
Strange experience: Once upon a time a young girl came to me to repair her shoes. But when I finished, she blamed me for leaving a glue trace on them. It was a 5-kuai deal but I had to give her 30-kuai to send her away because she kept arguing with me.
How is the business these days? Better and better because I have more and more repeat customers. But business turns bad when the weather gets cold. I used to repair umbrellas too.
Do you charge more for foreigners? Only a bit, maybe adding RMB1 or 2. But if they become repeat clients, I will charge them the same as the Chinese.
How do you like your job? I am used to it already. I have more than one hundred repeat customers. They often call me 'Little Leather Worker'.

Street tailor

NAME: Cheng Qunying
Age: 38
Where she's from: Huaibei, Anhui Province
Where she works: Dongzhu'anbang Lu
Working hours: 7am-7pm, every day
Years of trade: six months
How much does your service cost? About RMB8 for having trousers taken up, RMB3 for sewing a zip, and RMB20 for making a shirt.
Who are your loyal customers? I have a lot of repeat clients, from young girls to middle-aged women. Some even ask me to make holes in their jeans! So I charge them RMB1 for one hole.
Any weird experiences? Well, it is Shanghai. You can meet strange people and have weird experiences every day.
Do you charge more for foreigners? No, I don't do this. But sometimes the foreigner will give me tips. I don't refuse.
How do you like your job? I feel quite happy about being my own boss, except that I cannot wear gloves while working in the winter, even though it is very cold.

Fruit seller

NAME: Wang Dongxiang
Age: 43
Where she's from: Shangrao, Jiangxi Province
Where she works: From Jiangsu Lu to Dingxi Lu
Working hours: 10am-11pm, except for bad weather
Years of trade: 8
Monthly income: RMB1,500
How did you learn your trade? My husband came to Shanghai to start the business 13 years ago and I came after him, five years later. Now we both sell fruit for a living in Shanghai.
How much does your fruit cost? Grapefruit: RMB2.8/500g. Oranges: RMB10/1500g. Peaches: RMB10/2000g.
Any territory problems? We nomads don't have any such problems! (laughs)
Any strange experiences? Business is business. You don't have to put any personal feeling in it.
Do you charge more for foreigners? Of course not! Foreigners are not as innocent as they were 10 years ago. Some of them have been living in Shanghai for several years and know a thing or two about bargaining. If you charge them more they won't come back to you the next time.
How do you like your job? Well, it is a tough job. But it is still much better than planting on a farm back in my hometown.

Paper collector

NAME: Huang Junqing AGE: 42
Where he's from: Fuyang, Anhui Province
Where he works: Dongzhu'anbang Lu
Working hours: 7am-5pm, every day
Years of trade: 12
Monthly income: RMB60/day, or RMB1,800/month.
Cost of overheads: RMB200-300 for a tricycle.
How much does your service make? RMB0.15 for a bottle.
Who are your loyal customers? They are almost the entire inhabitants living in this neighborhood. They usually sell used newspapers once every month, sometimes with small cartons. But they are not that loyal. If I go back to my hometown during the Spring Festival, I find I lose all my 'loyal' customers.
How is business these days? It's getting worse because we have more and more competitors. Sometimes I have to climb up to the sixth floor for three used bottles from which I earn only six cents.

Shoe repairman

NAME: Chen Xueping
Where he's from: Haimen, Jiangsu Province
Where he works: Dongzhu?anbang Lu by Jiangsu Lu
Working hours: 8am-6pm except for rainy days
Years of trade: 12
Cost of overheads: A shoe sewing machine, strings, spanners, uppers, soles, calkins, hobnails, etc. In total, nearly RMB1,000.
How much do your services cost? Services vary form RMB1 for patching to RMB40 for replacing a sole.
How's business? It's getting better since I have built up a large group of loyal customers. And some of them have even introduced me to their friends. I have gained a good reputation by giving a good service and having a diligent attitude.
Do you charge more for foreigners? I charge everyone the same price. But some foreigners always leave tips. I guess that is their culture.
How do you like your job? It is much better than working at a factory from dawn to dusk. I make friends with a lot of my customers and chat with them about news or trivial family quarrels. And people also miss me when I go home for a visit. It?s good to be needed!

Flower seller

NAME: Ms. Huang
Where he's from: Nanchang, Jiangxi Province
Where she works: Dongzhuanbang Lu by Zhenning Lu.
Working hours: 4pm-10pm, every day
Years of trade: 7
How did you learn your trade? I learnt from the people who live near me. They taught me how to get flowers from Caojiadu, which is one of the biggest flower wholesale markets in Shanghai. I went to these flower shops to see how they wrap the flowers and then practiced at home.
How much does your service cost? RMB2 for a small bunch of carnations. RMB8 for a lily.
Any strange experiences? Some very demanding people are picky about how I wrap the flowers. I have to wrap them again and again until they are satisfied.
How is business nowadays? It is almost the same. When it comes to a holiday, such as last month?s Mid-Autumn Festival, business gets better. And I like winter better because it is easier to preserve flowers.
Do you charge more on foreigner? No.
How do you like your job? I have to be at the flower market at six in the morning, every morning. If I get there late, there will be no decent flowers left. This is an early bird job.

Recycle guy

NAME: Wang Xunling
AGE: 44
Where he's from: Suqian, Jiangsu Province
Working hours: 6:30am-6pm
Years of trade: 10
Where he works: Yongjia Lu area
Monthly income: RMB1,500-2,500
How did you learn your trade? I sold vegetables in a market when I first came to Shanghai, but a few months later it closed. Afterwards one of my countrymen introduced me to collecting cardboard and useless apparatus.
How much does your service cost? Newspapers: RMB 0.8/500g. Steel: RMB1.5/500g.
Who are your loyal customers? Most of my loyal customers are middle-aged women who are retired. One of my most important clients is the school in the neighborhood. Sometimes I even have to rent a truck to transport the waste newspapers and textbooks!
Any strange experiences? Once a man with a bag of copper wire asked me to recycle them for a very high price. Of course, I refused him. But later he came back and changed his mind to a very fair price. I was very excited at that moment and didn?t open the bag. But when I came home, it turned out that I had spent RMB450 for a bag of stones.
How is business these days? Business is getting better and my personal income has increased by around 10 per cent. But, of course, more and more people are joining the industry and competition is getting fiercer.
Do you charge more for foreigners? I never collect things from foreigners for a 'laowai' price. Once a British guy sold a dozen newspapers to me and didn't even let me weigh them. He just asked me to give him a reasonable price. I think most foreigners here are nice, and they trust us.
How do you like your job? Though it is a hard job, I like it very much. I have set up a very good relationship with my customers and I like to chat with them every day. Compared with the job in the market, I prefer to recycle things in the neighborhood because it is more relaxing and free.