GUANGZHOU: Beggars here are being told to move into shelters or pack up and go home as part of a scheme to clean up the city's streets, the Information Times News reported yesterday.

The local civil affairs bureau launched the campaign after the people's congress said beggars were disrupting social order and damaging the city's image.

Between August 2003 and April of this year, more than 140,000 beggars have stayed at government-run shelters in the city, the bureau said. But of those, just 1,247 had later returned home, it said.

According to Tang Xiujuan, a professor at Guangzhou University, the reason why so many people choose to stay on the street is because they regard begging as a profession.

"More than 95 percent of today's beggars are professionals," she told China Daily. In a survey she conducted last year, just five of the 135 beggars she spoke to were on the street because they were elderly or infirm and had no other option.

The rest were either professionals who saw begging as a lucrative profession, or people controlled by organized crime groups, she said. Beggars are now a common sight in downtown Guangzhou, especially during rush hour.

Chen Shuigen, a native of Henan province, said he has been begging in a subway station in the city for many years. "On some days I can make as much as 100 yuan ($15), but usually I make very little," he said. "People are more cautious about giving money these days."

Chen said he has turned down offers of help from the government many times and refuses to move into a shelter or return home. That is because, even on a bad day, he still makes more money begging than he would from working on a farm back home, he said.

The civil affairs bureau said it is hoping to talk the beggars into leaving the streets. Earlier this year, it recruited 100 volunteers to patrol the streets of Guangzhou looking for beggars. They offer them food and shelter and try to convince them to return home.

College student Sun Huijuan is one of the volunteers. She said that because she does not wear a uniform or an official's badge, the beggars do not see her as a threat, so it is easier to talk with them. "The volunteers can always get closer to the beggars," she said.

She also added that she and her colleagues talk to the beggars about the benefits of moving into a shelter. Once the beggars are in the shelters, officials can help them to find their way back home, the civil affairs bureau said. Records can then be kept on people to stop them returning.