It was the first time Zhang You had left the country. But unlike most others who take to the skies to travel, study or work abroad, Zhang went to beg.

Two years ago, the 76-year-old man from a remote village in China's central Henan Province joined a one-month tour group to Malaysia. However, he told the Global Times that throughout this "tour," he earned more than 3,000 yuan ($483) by begging in Kuala Lumpur.

Odd job interview

"It all began with a conversation with a strange man I met in my village several years ago. He never told me his name or where he was from. But he told me he could offer me a free trip to go abroad and earn some money," Zhang explained.

The stranger told Zhang that he didn't need to pay any fees and would be provided with free food and lodging for a month in Malaysia. The only condition was that Zhang spend all his time there begging.

Zhang realized this was actually a recruitment program and was told these free trips could happen in a number of foreign countries. In need of money in his old age, Zhang signed up.

"I can't do farm work anymore since I am too old. And after my two sons got married and moved away for work, I had little income to support myself," Zhang said.

Zhang spent 330 yuan applying for his first passport at the local police bureau and was ready to go.

Two months later, Zhang arrived in Shenzhen in South China's Guangdong Province under arrangements made by the stranger. He met a few dozen people there who had all come from around the country to make money overseas.

According to Zhang, these people varied widely in age and places of origin but were all from relatively poor backgrounds and were ready to travel abroad.

After his first time on a plane, Zhang arrived in Kuala Lumpur. He and others were sent to a house rented in advance, where he would stay for 26 days.

"Each morning, they sent us downtown or to tourist spots but I have no idea where they were. We didn't need to say a word but just beg while carrying a wooden stick and a bowl. We gave 40 percent of our begging income to the organizers and kept 60 percent ourselves as we had agreed to," Zhang said.

In this way, Zhang earned some 3,000 yuan in one month but he said others earned more than 10,000 yuan.

"My son called me to tell me to return home after he found out I went abroad to beg. He was afraid I wouldn't be able to come back if I got sick there," said Zhang, who returned to China just before his visa ran out.

Zhang's experience is not an isolated one. A case cracked by Henan police last month showed dozens of local villagers had joined such "begging groups" overseas since 2007.

"We found out about it last October when a dozen local villagers came to us to apply for passports to go to countries like Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore for travel. However they were all poor and elderly farmers from remote villages, some were even disabled. They hardly fit the profile of people able to travel abroad," said Zhang Yaozhong, a police press officer from Zhengyang, Henan.

Moreover, all these old men left the same address and phone number as contact details, increasing the police's suspicions.

An investigation uncovered evidence of an organized crime group. According to police, some 40 local villagers from Zhengyang county in Henan applied for passports in this context over the past three years. Three organizers were soon detained while 21 passports were revoked and 28 people were prevented from leaving the country.

The police said the three organizers had been charged with helping people illegally cross national borders and obtaining passports for fraudulent means. According the police, some of the old men involved were still overseas, with a number of them having died abroad.

Hometown of beggars

Begging is not a fresh problem for locals. Wu Xinai, from Zhengyang county, told the Global Times that it had been common knowledge for several years that elderly people were doing this.

"Going abroad to beg started about four or five years ago but local villagers have been going to other provinces in China to beg since the 1970s," Wu said.

As a traditional rural county that relies heavily on agriculture, Zhengyang is one of the poorest areas in Henan province. Farmers' income has been greatly affected by both droughts and floods hitting arable land.

"Fertilizers and pesticides are getting more and more expensive which has seen farming profits plummet. Many young people have left for big cities to work and those left behind are too old to tend the land," a local driver surnamed Chen told the Global Times.

"The only hope left for the elderly is their children. If children are duty-bound, their parents might be able to get along all right. If they are not, their parents will barely be able to afford the basics to live," Chen said. "Under such circumstances, many elders choose to beg. Usually, they go to big cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Wuhan. But of late, begging abroad has seemed better as they can earn money more easily," Chen said.

According to Southern Metropolis Daily, hundreds of beggars from remote areas of Henan Province had been living in Shenzhen's district of Huangbeiling for years. Most of them are old, have little education and have a tough time finding employment, other than begging or collecting trash.

Chen commented that begging was likely "a much easier way to make money than farm work."

No resources to aid them

According to Lu Xuezhi, deputy director of Zhengyang Civil Affairs Bureau, hundreds of beggars are sent home to the county from across China but little can be done to tackle the problem. 

According to local civil figures, of the 800,000 people in Zhengyang, only 30,000 can receive a 70 yuan monthly government allowance per month. This only kicked in after the government passed a compulsory basic living policy for China's rural areas in 2012.

"But how is 70 yuan enough to feed one person now when a bag of noodle flour costs 80 yuan?" said a local resident named Wu. "We don't even mention what happens if someone gets sick, how do they pay for hospitals? Even if they do look for work, who would hire people so old?"

Moreover, Lu from the civil affairs bureau admitted to the Global Times that due to the local government's lack for revenue, it is now virtually impossible to provide allowances for all those over the age of 70.

According to Lu, almost each village in Zhengyang county has a care center for seniors but they cannot meet the demand, especially as they only accept those with no children and who cannot care for themselves.

"In the Chinese countryside, the tradition is to bring up sons to support their parents when they are old. However, now conflicts between children or between wives and mothers-in-law have become such an issue that in many cases, nobody is willing to take on the burden of the elderly," Lu said.

This has left many elderly people to fend for themselves and turning to begging to make ends meet. 

Miserly assistance

According to figures from the Ministry of Civil Affairs, those over 60 in China will surpass 200 million in 2013. Some 80 percent of them are living in the countryside but only a minority are able to live in free care centers although most do get the minimal subsidy.

According to an official report from the Ministry in 2012, the new rural social pension insurance system covered the entire country by the end of 2012. More than 130 million elderly people are getting their pensions monthly. But another survey conducted by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) published in February revealed that more than 40 percent people in China said their pensions are not enough to meet their needs.

Inequality between pensions for those of different backgrounds is staggering in China. Those having retired from government and State-owned enterprises or who possess an urban hukou enjoy far more benefits, with the disparity in pensions between top and bottom being as great as 50 times.

The survey showed 79 percent people from rural areas strongly felt their pensions were insufficient, whereas only 3.8 percent of retired officials or State-owned enterprise employees shared this feeling.

A proposal submitted by the China Democratic National Construction Association to the annual meeting of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference this month suggested increasing the investment going toward pensions for low-income groups. 

It suggested that the basic pension rate should be increased to 100 yuan a month this year and to 200 yuan by 2020.

"These elderly people are vulnerable. We should not blame them for choosing to beg as they had no other choice. Instead, our entire society should pay more attention to establishing more effective social assistance to help them get back on a normal life track." Yin Zhigang, deputy director of the Shanghai Research Center for Aging, told the Global Times.