China has been It has no rival When it comes to of megaconstructions. In fact, Beijing’s domain is such that they even have the Highest abandoned skyscraper of the planet. What very few could anticipate was the excessive size of many of these heaven giants. We do not exaggerate, in some cases even the elevator is a teeth pain.
So a new trade (sub) has emerged.
Improvised economy of the heights. I told this week The New York Times. In Shenzhen, symbol city of the Chinese economic experiment and today turned into a vibrant core of 18 million inhabitants, the daily life in skyscrapers as The Seg Plaza It has generated an unusual phenomenon that combines ingenuity, precariousness and entrepreneurial spirit.
This 70 -storey building, headquarters of thousands of offices, has converted the simple act of delivering a lunch into A logistics challenge. In peak hours, the waiting for the elevator can be extended up to half an hourwhat for traditional castrs is a headache that erodes their ability to complete orders. The response to that difficulty has been the spontaneous appearance of an army of improvised runners, adolescents and retirees that are offered as intermediaries: they receive food bags at the entrance and, in exchange for a small commission, assume the last section to the client.
An unexpected trade. The example of li linxinga 16 -year -old who spends full days in front of the building to win About 100 Yua Dailysummarize this emerging microeconomy. For just 28 euro cents per order, Linxing makes its way between dozens of colleagues, expects crowded elevators and travels labyrinthine halls to deliver meals.
It is not a stable job not well paid, but it represents an opportunity for fast and direct incomesomething that in Shenzhen is enough to attract both students on vacation and older who find no other way to make a living. The mechanics is simple: the delivery man arrives on a motorcycle, delivers the bag, scan a QR code and follow its route, thus delegating to the “stand-in” the slowest and most expensive part in time.
Trust networks. He Shao Ziyou case And his wife illustrates how this model has resulted in organized structures. Known as the first to establish himself at the entrance of the Seg Plaza, Shao has woven a network of assistants to which deliveries subcontracts, keeping a small fraction of each order. In normal days, coordinates between 600 and 700 orderstransforming what began as an occasional favor to a distributor lost in a parallel logistics system.
The distributors recognize and trust him, which gives him a dominant position in front of other runners who try to capture orders offering lower rates. The 2020 pandemic, which paralyzed the electronic market of the building, consolidated this practice When firing the dependence on food cast.
The Seg Plaza
Competition and precariousness. The increase in runners has generated rivalry dynamics and frequent conflicts. Errors in deliveries They carry sanctionssince the distributors are fined by the platforms if the orders do not arrive, and transfer that pressure to the intermediaries.
The Times told That discussions scenes in the middle of the street by wrong addresses or unsatisfied customers have become common, although they are generally resolved pragmatic. In parallel, the competition has hardened the conditions: some lower their prices per order, others develop tactics to optimize their routes, such as waiting to accumulate several bags before climbing in the elevator.
The border of legality. The informal nature of this work also implies risks and limitations. Namely: none of the runners has a contract, insurance or labor rights; It is a tolerated activity in practice, but outside of any regulated framework.
A void that has even allowed the Child participationsome of school age, attracted by viral fashion in social networks. The images of children with uniforms chasing distributors generated such controversy that local authorities intervened prohibiting the use of minors for security reasons. Since then, only those over 16, such as Linxing, can continue, although precariousness remains the norm.
Shenzhen as a laboratory. If you want also, what happens in the Seg Plaza reflects the Shenzhen character as a permanent laboratory of improvised solutions to practical problems. The city, a pioneer in China’s opening to the global market, has turned each obstacle into an opportunity to create new trades, even if they are fragile and poorly paid.
This luck of “Gig Economy within the Gig Economy” shows the ability to adapt its inhabitants, but also vulnerability of those who participate in a model based on immediacy and low cost. In the daily scenes of runners loaded with six or seven bags in each hand, retirees who see in it a way of staying active, or adolescents looking for fast money, a microcosm is drawn that combines ingenuity with unprotection.
The good and the bad. In short, the history of Shenzhen’s “Delivery Stand-Ins” reveals both the creativity of a city that never stops and The cracks of a system which converts logistical needs into ephemeral jobs. The effectiveness with which they have solved the problem of slow elevators in a skyscraper demonstrates the agility of the Chinese informal economybut it also raises questions about the future of those who maintain these dynamics without contracts, without rights and with minimal remuneration.
In other words, what is apparently an ingenious solution to the noon jam becomes, looking more closely, in a reminder of how the modern economy depends more and more of invisible gears, a dystopia of people who run between endless floors holding to the pulse, and without guarantees, the daily life of the metropolis.
Hopefully they are not “those” works that AI cannot do.
Image | Robert Anders, Picryl, Charlie Fong
In Xataka | China has no rival in megaconstructions: it has even the highest abandoned skyscraper in the world
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