Chinese paramilitary guards monitoring passengers as they head to their train to travel to their hometowns for the “Spring Festival” or Lunar New Year at Nantong Railway Station in Jiangsu province, near Shanghai Travellers taking part in the world' s largest annual human migration must be home by January 27 to usher in the new year on January 28. (Photo by AFP Photo/Stringer)

Passengers wear protective masks while riding a subway train on April 21, 2020 in Shanghai, China. Health authorities of China said the country has passed the peak of the COVID-19 epidemic on March 12. As of today, the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has spread to many countries across the world, claiming over 171,000 lives and infecting over 2.4 million people. (Photo by Yves Dean/Getty Images)

A laborer works at an upside-down house under construction at Fengjing Ancient Town, Jinshan District, south of Shanghai, March 17, 2014. Workers are putting the final touches on this eccentric tourist attraction built at the “China Folk Painting Village”. Furniture will also be placed upside down in the house, which is expected to open the public in April, according to local media. (Photo by Carlos Barria/Reuters)

In this Tuesday January 21, 2014, file photo, slaughtered chickens are displayed for sale at a wholesale poultry market in Shanghai. The Chinese government on Tuesday, June 1, 2021, says a 41-year-old man has contracted what might be the w0orld’s first human case of the H10N3 strain of bird flu, but the risk of large-scale spread is low. (Photo by AP Photo/File)

July gestures next to her boyfriend Jason Schaller while they are suspended from hooks pierced through their skins by professional body artist Wei Yilaien at a bar in Shanghai, China September 16, 2018. “I like being unique and I don't like doing things that many people are aware of and would accept”, said Wei, 24, who staged the show of extreme body piercing in China's normally buttoned down financial capital. (Photo by Aly Song/Reuters)

Chinese woman Duo Zirong feeds stray cats at her home February 14, 2006 in Shanghai, China. Duo Zirong, a Daur ethnic minority group woman from Inner Mongolia and reported as the “Cat Woman”, has housed about 300 cats with her Shanghainese husband Liu Junluo and mother-in-law. (Photo by China Photos/Getty Images)

Shanghai-based artist Hong Yi, also known as Red, used 750 pair of socks to create a rather unusual sock portrait of famous Chinese film director Zhang Yimou. Yi, which is famous for her Coffee Stain Portrait, spent over three weeks on the project and used black, white and grey socks. (Photo by Ohiseered.com)

Low economic conditions in China’s urban areas have sparked an increase of beggars faking disabilities in an attempt to gain more money. Cities like Shanghai and Hong Kong are littered with naive tourists who are more than willing to hand over a few yen to anyone appearing to be handicapped in anyway.