China 2025: No Jobs, No Food, No Hope—Beggars Fill the Streets, Stores Stand Empty

How much is it on WeChat? 25, I will leave Guangzhou. Don't come to Guangzhou. Don't come to Guangzhou anymore. Anyone who is thinking of coming here to work should give up that idea. In recent years, Guangzhou is no longer what it used to be. I've lived in Guangzhou for six years, and to be honest, these past two years have been the most miserable and desolate I've ever seen it. A few years ago it was still bearable, but now living in Guangzhou isn't even as good as living back in the countryside. Life back home is better than in Guangzhou, so just forget about that thought. If you really want to go to a first-tier city, consider somewhere else. Shenzhen is still better than Guangzhou. I'm also preparing to leave Guangzhou, to leave this place. There's really nothing good here. In the summer it's unbearably hot. Cockroaches everywhere, rats everywhere, and you have to rent houses in those cramped village-in-the-city areas. In the end, monthly wages are only 3,000 to 4,000 yuan, at best 5,000 to 6,000. And that's it. That's the work of ordinary people. Let me show you how many food delivery riders there are in Shanghai. It's all delivery riders. I'm standing here at the traffic light. See? It's all delivery riders. Don't underestimate them. Many of them are university graduates, and there are even some with master's and doctoral degrees. So in Shanghai, if you want to do food delivery but don't have a college degree, don't even think about it. China's economy continues to decline. Factories are shutting down, and mass unemployment is becoming severe. Recently, in Langfang City, Hebei Province, four men, unable to find jobs, went hungry for a day and were forced to beg along the streets. A related video spread across the Internet, leaving many netizens heartbroken. In the video, four middle-aged men, around 50 to 60 years old, with sorrowful faces, sat in front of a table preparing to eat. A woman in the video recounted that she saw them walking along, greeting passers-by, but people just waved them away. Out of curiosity, she waited until they came closer to find out more. The woman said that one of them, wearing a white shirt, explained that he had searched for work the whole day, but no one would hire him. Because he was already over 60, no one wanted to employ him, and he had no money to eat. As he spoke, he slapped himself twice in the face, saying, I don't even care about this old face anymore, as long as I can have a bite to eat. The woman, seeing how pitiful they were, took all four men to a nearby noodle shop and bought them each a bowl of noodles. This video sparked heated discussions. Many people felt sorrow for the hardships faced by the underclass. Some said, nowadays, unless someone is truly driven to desperation, they wouldn't go begging. Others lamented that even young people in China now struggle to find jobs. For people from the countryside coming to the city to look for work, it's true. Many can't find jobs, can't get food. Everyone is suffering. Do you know? In Shenzhen now, 90% of street shops are losing money, 5% are breaking even, and only 5% are making a profit. Don't argue with me. You can go investigate yourself. This year, physical stores basically no longer follow the rule of one hole, one radish, meaning enough space for everyone. Instead, one person has to do the work of two. Women are being used like men, men are being treated like beasts of burden, and bosses have to act like superhumans. Bosses sitting in front of the screen right now, isn't your store the same as this? I'm a loan broker, and I have to be honest. The situation in Guangzhou is really hard to believe. Some companies haven't paid wages for two or three months, even half a year. What's even worse is that someone could still be working one day, and then by that night, a notice appears in the group chat, saying the company has dissolved. No more work. I'm 42 this year, and I've been unemployed for eight months. My life is a complete mess, and I haven't achieved anything. I still don't own a home, don't own a car, I'm still single, and I'm still renting a tiny apartment in Beijing, struggling to get by. At 42, other people have children around them, laughing and playing, and a spouse whose strong shoulders they can lean on. But what about me at 42? I'm still living alone in Beijing, leading a solitary life. Recently, the stress of job hunting has kept me from sleeping. I can barely get any rest at night, tossing and turning, overthinking everything. China's macroeconomic situation right now is not good. It's not just young people who are struggling to find jobs. There are also many unemployed middle-aged workers. On social media, countless netizens are sharing their struggles of being middle-aged and jobless, and the hardships they face. In 2025, I was born in 1981, and this year, I am unemployed. Today marks the 18th day of my unemployment, and honestly, I'm scared. Even though I've cut my personal spending down to almost nothing, the family still has to eat, the kids still need to go to school. Every day is only expenses without income, plus the mortgage and car loan. I can clearly see that I won't be able to hold out much longer. Even when nothing special happens, my whole state of being is terrible. My days and nights are flipped. I feel like I've aged dramatically, and I speak far less with my wife and children. I don't know what to say anymore, nor do I want to say anything. Afraid that my mood will drag theirs down. But I know very well that my wife is worried too. Everything used to go smoothly, and we never faced a situation like this before. We were completely unprepared. In the end, I even reached out to some friends in the same industry, hoping for a job opportunity, but they just read my messages without replying. Shen Yun Road in Chuanxia. Such a prime location. And yet every house is shut. No one is around. Not a single person. Only me. Foshan is currently one of the most devastated manufacturing hubs. Every industry here is tied to real estate. Factory owners in this sector are truly suffering. Many companies have shut down on any given day. Out of 100 companies, about 40-50% collapse. The ones that survive must have extraordinary resilience. But even so, their bosses are struggling tremendously. Especially in industrial real estate, we've met too many business owners in trouble. One of my clients initially rented a 20,000 square meter factory. Last year, he asked me for just 10,000 square meters. This year, he admitted he couldn't manage anymore, and asked me to help him find only 3,000 to 5,000 square meters. From 20,000 down to 3,000, 5,000. That's how tough things have gotten. I'm pretty sure I've been laid off. It's a big company with 210,000 employees. I used to think working at a big firm would mean stability. This is my third year at the company. Who could have imagined that a corporation making hundreds of billions in profits every year would start laying people off? I had planned to stay there long term, maybe even retire with the company. But out of nowhere, I was suddenly cut. Thankfully, my landlord is a kind man. When I told him I'd been laid off, he reassured me and said he would return my deposit. China's economy is rapidly declining, with desolate scenes and unemployment everywhere. Fresh graduates are already jobless. Physical stores are shutting down in droves. Ordinary people are struggling, and some can't even afford to eat. Outside analysts believe that resentment in Chinese society is boiling over, like sitting on the mouth of a volcano. Crisis could erupt at any moment. Closed. Closed. The entire row is closed. This is a well-known apartment complex in Pingshan, Shenzhen. Landlords kept cutting rental prices again and again, yet still couldn't find tenants. Back then, people spent millions, even tens of millions, to buy in. And now, look, can't even rent them out. It's all just money down the drain. 1.4 billion Chinese people, all of them are crying now. These statistics are real. Nationwide, 85% of households have an annual income of no more than 50,000 yuan, with as many as 936 million people earning less than 2,000 yuan. So many people are merely scraping by to survive. This can't even be called living. Not making money. Right now, it's not just you who can't make money. There are countless others who can't either. If you don't believe me, just check the comments under my posts. On Douyin, all those flashy displays of millions in savings, luxury cars, and mansions, they're all filtered, all beautified. If you still don't believe it, just look around at your own friends. How many are still getting paid on time? Or look at the small business owners. How many of them are actually living well right now? Chinese workers have started eating livestock feed. You didn't mishear me. We truly live in a bizarre world now. Chinese workers have started eating livestock feed. Just three minutes for a meal, 30 yuan, covers all the daily protein, carbs, and vitamins a person needs. This is the artificial feed now popular across the country. There's even a viral saying online, we only need the nutrients in food, not the food itself.