In late December of 2012, a homeless person froze to death under an overpass in Yuhua District of Changsha City, Hunan Province. On Jan. 3, another homeless person followed suit in the city's Kaifu District.

Why did these two opt to decline the warmth of the local rescue station?

A homeless man, tied up, lies on a stretcher in the reception hall of a shelter center in Changsha on Monday night. [voc.com.cn]

At 10 p.m. on Jan. 6, Luan Weidong was busy collecting garbage from a trash can on Changsha's bustling Jiefang West Road.

Luan has been collecting trash at night in this city for nearly three years now. Before that, he had been wandering around other provinces or regions in China for 21 years. He dug coal in the small and narrow mines of northwestern China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and he sweated it out inside the brick kilns of central China's Henan Province. He then came to Changsha in 2009. "Changsha is warmer," he said.

In the past three years, volunteers, policemen and even residents have all tried to persuade him to go to the local rescue station, which serves as a homeless shelter. He has smiled and declined every single time. "The rescue station will eventually send me back home. If I could just live at home, what would I need to wander around the streets for?" Luan asked. He's had some experience staying in rescue stations in other cities. Feeling "imprisoned," he swore he would not set foot in there again.

Journalist Dai Peng from the Sanxiang Metropolitan News investigated about 20 homeless people in Changsha over the course of one week. Though hardly able to feed themselves and are shabbily dressed, they still prefer to collect garbage from places like train stations and construction sites, than turn to the rescue station for help.

Dai Peng disguised himself as a homeless person in order to try and find out what the rescue station looks and feels like from the inside.

At 9 p.m. on Jan. 7, a local resident found Dai, who was wearing ragged clothes borrowed from Luan Weidong, and assumed Dai to be homeless. After having called the local rescue station ten times with no answer, the resident reached out to emergency hotline 110 for help. Shortly after the phonecall, two policemen came over and took Dai to the Changsha rescue station.

The policemen left five minutes after their arrival at the station, under the assumption the station would provide salvation. After their exit however, things took a turn for the worse.

"What is your name? Where do you live?" a staff member from the station coldly asked Dai. Even though being asked the same questions several times, Dai did not answer for he had disguised himself as a deaf-mute. Suddenly, another staff member rushed behind Dai's back and tightly tied up Dai's hands while two other staff members had a firm grip on Dai from the front. "You cannot beat me in a rescue station, you cannot beat me in a rescue station!" Dai yelled whilst realizing that he could most definitely be beaten up. "We won't beat you, really, we won't beat you," a staff member replied. Yet out of the blue Dai found himself crashing onto the floor. Lying there, Dai had trouble breathing as the two staff members were firmly holding his feet down.

"Let me out, let me out, I don't need to be rescued!" Dai begged.

"You want to leave? It's too late for that now," a staff member said with his knee harshly pushing against Dai's head.

"According to the rules, I can voluntarily enter and exit the rescue station. You can't take my freedom from me," Dai said. But still, they did not let him go.

In the end, Dai had to tell them the phone number of his father, who lives far away in his hometown in Zhejiang Province. Staff finally untied Dai after his father had negotiated with the station's staff members.

Dai was only allowed to leave after writing "Voluntarily forgoing salvation" on a form, and signing his name by leaving his fingerprint.

Dai was in that homeless shelter for under 40 minutes.

Who can possibly imagine what happens to the homeless after being sent to the rescue station?

Homeless people are a test to any given city's open-mindedness; they are not a blemish on the city's reputation.

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