Shanghai had no social safety net. Everybody who wasn't independently wealthy or had wealthy relatives lived in constant risk of death from starvation or deprivation should they get injured, sick or lose their job.
The majority of Shanghai's Chinese population lived in poverty, meaning that it was difficult to secure a meal every day. Many were homeless, while others were packed together in a single room. They had no access to toilets or running water and no heating in the winter, they also only owned a minimum of clothes.
But there were still degrees of poverty.
Skilled laborers were the best off and were usually capable of getting a home and three solid meals of rice and vegetables a day, occasionally also a bit of fish. They even had a chance to save money for luxuries such as new clothes. But everybody still needed to lend a hand to feed the family.
The vast number of servants were poorer than the skilled laborers and their families. They had a place to live, but teetered on the brink of starvation. The city was home to scores of prostitutes, most of whom lived in poverty.
Men earning their keep carrying heavy burdens were known as coolies. Rickshaw runners were part of this group. Some coolies were only intermittently employed and had to beg to survive the rest of the time and usually lived on the streets. Others were permanently employed, securing them wages for food every day and possibly even the chance to sleep indoors. A few lucky, frugal rickshaw runners were even able to save the money to buy a rickshaw of their own, giving them the chance to keep a larger percentage of the payment for themselves.
The large number of peddlers were a very diverse group. Some had a decent income, while others such as fortune tellers were outright destitute.
At the bottom of Shanghai's social hierarchy were the beggars. There were only few registered beggars in the concessions, but they were joined by the unregistered and many slept outside the concessions, but begged there in the daytime. The slums surrounding the city were home to a large number of the poor. P
Three million people lived in Shanghai in 1930, of these roughly 150,000 were homeless. In addition, 150,000 more people lived in the slums.