I was wondering about the alkaline batteries too. They recently removed all the trash cans with battery receptacles in my neighborhood. Based on the statement Dan quoted, sounds like they simply gave up. They were probably just dumping them in the landfill anyway.

"A more serious picker who spends most of the day searching for scrap could make more than ten yuan per day"

This is why, when I'm doing spring cleaning or otherwise getting rid of a lot of scrap, I just give it to them for free. My neighbors think I'm crazy.

AlexKMG: It's probably included in your wuguan fee. A lot of neighborhoods don't bother giving residents an itemized list, but if you ever see one, you'll see it's divvied up into things like grounds maintenance, elevator inspection fee, security, waste removal and whatnot.

@Anonymous Coward:

Of course it makes perfect sense that the city is mobilizing the entire paichusuo network and encouraging a few million people to register their bikes just so they can keep tabs on your visa situation. It's not like they don't already have that information sitting in a file at your neighborhood paichusuo where you have to register...

According to the linked article, you don't need an official Fapiao to register. The Fapiao is only used to establish that the bike is new and eligible for the higher theft payout.

This is an improvement from the original registration drive, where the bike couldn't be registered without a whole bunch of paperwork, most of which the dealers weren't providing.

As for Alien's comment, I was told that this raid was directed by the city government, while previous enforcement was done on the district level.

This next part is speculation, but I bet someone is in hot water right now for taking money to look the other way. All the vendors on Wenhuaxiang used to pay each night for their slots, and I'm pretty sure a large cut of that went upstairs somewhere, probably to the district chengguan.