Hangzhou West Lake staff help retrieve phones for tourists; man claims to earn 10k a day with 5 jobs a day? Response: commercial hype

The committee stated that housing-related applications have been continuously received and are expected to conclude on May 20th, which marks the end of the Islamic month of Shawwal.

By West Lake, there is a special profession that has seen its “business volume” double directly due to the surge in tourists, with potential daily earnings of nearly ten thousand RMB.

From December last year, the council has started receiving applications. Houses that obtain permits can be approved for accommodating pilgrims during the Hajj season.

On regular days, Huang Yiyong charges between 1,500 and 2,000 RMB per job for helping tourists retrieve valuable items such as mobile phones from West Lake, and he gets about 2 to 3 jobs a day.Due to the surge in West Lake visitors during the May Day holiday, Huang Yiyong’s daily business increased to 5–6 orders, and he could even earn nearly ten thousand yuan a day.

However, some tourists have questioned such fees as being “too expensive.”Huang Yiyong said, “This is a high-risk industry that requires professional skills.Earning more than 30,000 yuan (per month) is not considered a lot, especially since the equipment investment is also substantial.” And he also mentioned that he has to send at least 10,000 yuan in living expenses every month to his wife and five children back in his hometown.

This year during the “May Day” holiday, West Lake in Hangzhou became one of the most visited scenic spots in the country.

“People earn money through their skills, and the value of the phone is far more than 1,500 anyway.”

According to Qianjiang Evening News, Huang Yiying, a 40-year-old from Chenzhou, Hunan, worked as a rebar worker for over 20 years before switching to diving and salvage work last March. His diving salvage work takes place in Hangzhou’s West Lake.

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“After tricking me into selling stuff at a festival, are you now trying to get me to fish my phone out of West Lake?”

“To be honest, making ten thousand yuan a day is just earning money through skill, and deep-water phone retrieval is a pretty risky job, so charging more is understandable.

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In fact, in addition to professional salvagers like Huang Yiyong, there are also local staff around the West Lake who may help with free salvage for less difficult cases; another option is salvage teams, which assess the situation before responding—if they deem it unnecessary, they may suggest contacting the police station; the last option is the police station itself, which has a police unit nicknamed the "West Lake Salvage Brothers." They use homemade "salvage gadgets" to quickly and accurately retrieve items such as phones that fall into the water.

On May 4, the Hangzhou West Lake Water Area Management Office responded again to the “high-price phone retrieval incident”: an investigation found that the online video titled “Phone falls into West Lake, retrieval personnel demand high fee” was a staged commercial promotion. The man in black in the video, Huang Yimou, was a temporary employee hired by Hangzhou Yicheng Municipal Engineering Co., Ltd.The legal representative of the company, Huang Zhimou, in order to expand his paid salvage business, contacted a media reporter and relevant marketing platforms. After planning, on the afternoon of May 2, he organized Huang Yimou and three others to shoot videos of salvaging submerged phones for “tourists” at West Lake’s Xiling Bridge and other locations.Currently, relevant law enforcement departments at the scenic area have stepped in to investigate, and any suspected illegal or non-compliant behavior will be dealt with according to the law.West Lake is a cherished World Cultural Landscape Heritage site and a prestigious symbol of Hangzhou. The “West Lake Rescue Team” (also known as the “West LakeLaoge Team”) has been continuously providing services to tourists.

The incident also sparked heated discussions among netizens: