Li offers to take me along on a typical job: going to a famous Shanghai hospital specializing in traditional Chinese medicine to collect a repeat prescription for gallstones for a customer. If there are only two people in a village, you can't make a line. Thinking of the bread lines in the former Soviet Union, I ask Li if he thinks authoritarian governments like to make their subjects line up. Bank lines are also epic half-a-day's wait is not unusual. But Li's runners don't take those jobs because of regulations against scalping. The longest waits of the year are for train tickets home at Spring Festival one friend waited overnight only to be told they weren't even selling tickets to his town. Li Qicai, a professional paotui, or queuer You don't need any skills, except the ability to suffer. ![]() He employs four full-time queuers and a host of freelancers, who, for a cost of about $3 an hour, will do the waiting for you. What's more, he now outsources the waiting to others. The overnight queue at the launch of Apple's iPad 2 pales in comparison to the epic waits for certain over-subscribed state-run services.Įarlier this month, people waited four days and three nights to register for low-income housing in the central city of Xian, while admission to a certain Beijing kindergarten in Changping last year required a week-long, round-the-clock queue, for which people set up camp beds along the pavement.īut as with most things, one pragmatic Chinese entrepreneur has found a business opportunity out of adversity.įor the past two years, Li Qicai, 28, has made a career out of waiting in line. ![]() ![]() In China, waiting in line sometimes feels like a competitive sport. One entrepreneur in Shanghai will wait in line for you, for around $3 an hour. Lines for everything from luxury handbags to social service programs can go on for days - literally. Customers line up at an Apple store for the launch of the iPhone 4 in Shanghai in 2010.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |