Migrants on the Move

While riding my bike passed one of the larger hotels in the city one day this week, two things immediately became apparent: 1) there were more cops around than usual; and 2) the migrant workers who frequent that area of the city everyday were conspicuously absent. Because I rarely see roadblocks and lots of cops standing around doing nothing, I decided to ask one of the cops what was going on. Predictably, he ignored me and waved me away. Next, I asked a man exiting the hotel if he knew what was going on. “Maybe there’s a meeting here today,” he mused. Finding this response less-than-acceptable, I decided to ask another cop who was stationed 25 meters down an alley what was going on. “A leader is coming here soon,” he told me. When I asked him who this leader was, he responded, “I’m not too clear about that.” Regardless of whether or not the second cop actually knew who was scheduled to arrive at the hotel that afternoon wasn’t of interest to me. What was of interest was that, no more than 50 meters down the alley passed the second cop was a whole slew of migrant workers. So, while the workers had been taken away from an area in which the “leader” may have seen them, they were still expected to be at work, in the shadows, building Beijing.