An online photo taken in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, has ignited a flurry of speculation and fury from viewers.
In the picture, the ground under an overpass is thickly riddled with pyramid-shaped, thorny cement cones, similar to rows upon rows of sharks' sharp, serrated teeth, standing erect as if poised to devour passersby.
What are the spooky protrusions for? Wild guesses range from excavated graveyards, fortified military facilities to Stonehenge-style alien monuments.
The local bureau of urban utilities and landscaping eventually admitted it was the creator of this feat of engineering.
Insiders revealed these concrete spikes are intended to deter vagrants from sleeping below the bridge.
The truth put netizens' teeth on edge. In fact, such mind-bending maneuvers to flush out the homeless are long in the tooth.
In early 2010, a batch of benches was placed in bus stops in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, too narrow and slippery to even fit in a sitter's butt. The Urban and Rural Construction Committee later conceded the grotesque design was to guard against rough sleepers.
For urban planners with an intrinsic penchant for image massaging, waifs and strays on street corners are a real eyesore. They rummage through trash for decayed food, their clothes are ragged and torn, and their bodies reek of rotting filth, unlike the well-heeled, perfume-doused filthy rich.
Officials therefore stick their heads in the sand, evicting wanderers in what they believe is a deftly subtle, non violent way, thus painting a rosy picture of a tramp-free Neverland.
Citizens won't buy it. Some point out that the construction of impenetrable cement awls means public finance was wasted, the homeless stripped of shelter, and discontent among the masses fueled.
The lose-lose situation of ineptitude and inefficiency, usually kick-started by bureaucrats, is a stinging blow against the notion of a well functioning democracy where government expenditures ought to maximize general interests.
"They could have spent that money on building houses for us," griped Old Du, a homeless scavenger in Guangzhou, in an interview with the Southern Metropolis Weekly magazine.
More than a few eyebrows have been raised at policymakers' indifference and inhumanity toward the grass roots. A government of, by and for the people, instead of flaunting ever-taller edifices, mammoth stadiums, and striking skylines, should offer a safe haven to disadvantaged groups stuck in the concrete jungle.
How the most destitute are treated is as a touchstone of the modern city spirit.
Homelessness is a problem everywhere. But if overseas experiences are anything to go by, Chinese authorities seat on taxpayer-funded foreign "study" trips should have learned to handle roadside drifters with a human touch.
Although over 50 US cities have outlawed sleeping or begging in public areas, and measures such as narrow benches are hardly unknown, there exists untold makeshift huts, food banks and other humanitarian aid for the needy bankrolled by federal administrations or charity agencies. Some sanctuaries in China though, stuff their unwanted "customers" into trains and dump them on other cities' stations.
For underdeveloped nations like India, stringent cabinets adopt a hands-off gesture on an estimated 93 million paupers who, with governmental acquiescence, set up and reside in their own semi-protected slums, ghettos and shanty towns, where they face less risk of being burned and bulldozed.
Meanwhile, certain departments in China render almost no assistance to the destitute. Instead they force them out of the small safe spaces they strive to make for themselves. The city authorities might be concerned about their image. But what kind of image does it show when they relentlessly target the poorest of the poor?
The author is a Shanghai-based freelance writer. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn