Twenty stories of Chinese made extra in 2023

Good afternoon! It's been a week since I landed back from my "crazy" two-week trip in America. A huge shout-out to the folks in the newsletter community who showed me such a warm welcome. We've had some really interesting chats. Got hit with some jet lag and food poisoning, so I was feeling a bit off for a few days. But, I’ve gathered a bunch of interesting articles I’m excited to share with you all, especially before the Two Sessions start this weekend.

Today, I’m sharing a piece about how ordinary folks in China are finding ways to earn extra through part-time work or some creative hustles. It’s no secret that a lot of businesses here faced hard times last year, making jobs hard to find. I translated this article for you because it provides an angle to look at the “small” opportunities within an economy at a crossroads. It also shows how people use their smarts to navigate through life.

During my travels in the United States, I had a conversation with an Uber driver in Texas, who is an immigrant. We talked about this article I was preparing to publish, which details how Chinese people make extra money. She asked in depth about the methods mentioned in the article and expressed a desire to come to China to explore business opportunities. It made me realize that places in China known for international wholesale and retail of goods, like 义乌 Yiwu, are actually not as famous as they deserve to be.

The article comes from 每日人物 (Daily People), a WeChat blog focusing on individual stories amidst hot social topics. The blog issued a call for submissions to readers for stories about how to successfully make money in China and received stories from more than 300 Chinese readers. The article included 20 different ways of making extra in China from the readers’ submissions.

The article was published on Feb. 6. The original title is 过去一年，我居然搞到钱了 “Over the past year, “I can’t believe I really made money.” You’ll read stories from college students, teachers, employees at state-owned places, financial analysts, e-commerce folks, plant enthusiasts, designers, and more. Each money-making story begins with the protagonist's name, age, method of earning, and the amount earned. Besides success stories, you’ll also read money-losing cases.

Feel free to share which story impresses you the most or which one you like best.

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Skill-based sideline jobs

1.@Michael, 31, making 2,000 US dollars by selling withered wood from the countryside

I met an American artist when I was out in Yiwu (one of the world’s largest wholesale markets for small commodities in east China’s Zhejiang Province) trying to find goods for cross-border supply chains. As a painter who paints forests and other things in nature, he often uses raw wood for painting frames. He found me and asked me whether I could help him buy one in China. Before that, he had spent a lot on them. Some painting frames made of boxwood can sell for as high as 1,000 US dollars. He also tried to search for similar materials on lots of international platforms for cross-border e-commerce, only in vain.

I agreed to help. To be honest, I just wanted to make a new friend, rather than money. I called my uncle who is living in our rural hometown in east China’s Anhui Province. He found some ordinary withered pine wood used for burning in fires and sent them to a woodworking factory in northeast China. The final product was a frame that measures 30 x 40 cm. I sold it for just 70 U.S. dollars. Actually, I didn’t make any money from it if I deducted the cost of processing. The shipping alone cost 30 U.S. dollars, not to mention that I needed to pay my uncle some money to return the favor.

In Yiwu, many businesspeople engage in cross-border e-commerce. To make money, they sell very cheap objects that are tiny, not easily broken, not expensive to ship, and free from cargo damage. In contrast, it is very difficult to sell painting frames under similar standards and on a large scale. But that’s not the most important thing for me. I care more about whether I am doing something worthwhile. The U.S. painter spoke highly of the painting frame he received. Later, he gave me a painting as a gift, and even placed another order worth nearly 2,000 U.S. dollars.

The finished painting frame made of raw wood

2.@Kaola, 29, making doll clothes, 10,000 yuan (about 1,400 U.S dollars) a month

I only started to realize the importance of money after I got married in 2021, as neither me nor my date's family could give us any financial support. Then I decided to work hard to make money and started taking on a side hustle while working as an underwear sample designer.

One day in April 2023, I noticed doll clothes today are all good-looking, but also expensive. I wondered whether I could run a sideline of some kind since I have more than 10 years of experience in clothing. The best sideline is an extension of your main job. From designing, customizing patterns and materials, to dyeing, it's similar to my job in many ways.

Compared with my main job, the doll clothing market has a small customer base. Some complicated doll clothes are customized, making it difficult to mass produce them. Of course, that means it’s difficult to make money too. Not everyone can learn how to make doll clothes easily, and not everyone is willing to do so, because you have to be interested in it to be able to continue. Depending on how complex it is for me to design the style, the prices of doll clothes may range from 100 yuan to 1,000 yuan. Now I can, satisfyingly, make more than 10,000 yuan each month.

3.@Zhouran, 42, installing lamps, 800 yuan (about 110 U.S. dollars)

I was busy renovating my house in 2023. One day, I bought a water purifier. Although the user guide says a specialized installation worker must be hired to install the purifier, I managed to install it myself quickly. After seeing what I did, a worker jokingly encouraged me to register online and use my skill to earn some money in my neighborhood. I can easily earn 30 yuan by installing a lamp, he said.

His words inspired me. “A good idea,” I thought. I began to take orders online to help others install lamps. I also responded to personal requests in other ways. A woman who bought a house near my home but doesn’t live there asked me to install a bathroom lamp in her apartment. Two days later, she asked me to help her change the password for her smart door lock. She said I’m a reliable man. I agreed, walked to her home, and finished it quickly. She paid me 200 yuan (about 30 U.S. dollars) for my work.

When I told the woman I was overpaid, she said she would need to spend as much if she chose to take a taxi to her home and change the password. Later, she paid me to install all the lamps in her home.

Now, my principle is making money “shamelessly” and spending it generously. I plan to buy a machine that can be used to clean underfloor heating pipes in winter 2024 and help my neighbors clean their heating pipes. My neighborhood is where I start a business.

4.@Sulaoshi, 28, new media writer, 200,000 yuan (about 28,000 U.S. dollars) a year

Thanks to my job, I made some friends working in new media. And through them, I started writing commercial articles and became a writer. At the same time, I tried to find opportunities online, searching for information on social networking platforms like WeChat and Douban.

Making money in this way is very laborious. Every day I need to spend a lot of time searching for information and looking for articles I can re-edit. I often write until midnight after work and go to work at 6 or 7 the next morning. Well, for a graduate who majored in Chinese language in university, writing is the only thing I’m good at. Furthermore, I do the job not for money. I have a stable job as a teacher. I guess I write possibly to gain a sense of security.

The job allows me to have some experiences beyond my imagination. I remember writing a speech for an organization's leader. The pay was 3,000 yuan (about 420 U.S. dollars), the highest offer I’ve gotten. I was surprised to know that such articles can also be outsourced. Moreover, not knowing much about its topic, I made some mistakes while writing the suggestion part. And you know what? The leader read them out exactly in the way I wrote it, and nobody ever found out!

It’s ridiculous that such an important speech was written by a layman, right? Well, the world is a huge stage; we are all amateurs.

Trendy sideline jobs

5.@Ruanruan, 32, giving wealth lessons, 35,000 yuan (about 5,000 U.S. dollars)

In 2023, I made money by teaching people how to arrange their money. I taught them to make budgets, reflect on their expenditure, and develop a habit of saving money painlessly (saving a small amount of money each time). Through my course, I helped more than 100 people create their financial system. I earned 35,000 yuan(about 4865 U.S. dollars) after deducting the labor cost and course development cost.

How did I get the idea of launching a course about money? This had to do with my personal experience. I worked on financial analysis in a real estate company for almost 10 years; I kept records of spending for six or seven years; I took some wealth management lessons. When I heard everyone around me talking about saving money and consumption downgrading, which means consumers look for ways to spend less, and when I saw posts about how to get money more quickly flooding social media platforms, I felt it was time to do something.

I posted my courses on WeChat. My connections on WeChat timeline were more enthusiastic about it than I had imagined. One of them was the bookkeeping camp. The participants pay 299 yuan (about 40 U.S. dollars) and I will return 200 yuan (about 30 U.S. dollars) to them when the lessons finish as long as they can track their expenses and share their records every day for a month. In the end, I ran four bookkeeping camps and two wealth management lessons. Each session attracted 30 participants, and 70 percent of them finished their lessons. Well, for the remaining, they believed they finished the lesson the moment they paid for it.

I noticed all of the participants wanted to be financially freedem, yet they all lacked a clear underlying logic. How far are you away from the financial freedom stage you aim to achieve? They only knew the concept but didn’t know the exact answer. Some even kept false accounts. Essentially, that was because they were not clear about their needs.

For ordinary people, in fact, the resources and levers we have are limited. Only when we devote our money, time, and energy, which act as the three drivers of life, to the same thing, can we pull greater levers and reap bigger fruits.

6.@Zhajigeichizhajichi, 30, collecting discount coupons, several thousand yuan (about 500 - 1,000 U.S. dollars)

I started collecting coupons after I entered a relationship. To save money when we went out dating, we turned to Xianyu, a second-hand goods trading platform, to buy discount coupons. Later, I came up with the idea of collecting discount coupons myself and then selling them through Xianyu.

That’s very easy to do: getting coupons when they are released and selling them when they become unavailable. In the past six months, I collected coupons for hotpot, roast meat, milk tea, and coffee. I earned about two to 10 yuan from each coupon, and 4,000 to 5,000 yuan (about 556 to 695 U.S. Dollars) in total.

There were some problems, though. Finding coupons takes too much time. There are just so many platforms that offer a wide variety of coupons. I don’t know which coupon I can sell in the end, so I could only adopt the strategy of casting a wide net. That means browsing my phone for long periods of time. Maybe I collected 100 types of coupons but only sold one. The worst thing is I collected only one coupon of that popular type.

I had thought that I make money to live. The former, however, comes at a price and takes too much time. Sometimes I got a message from a buyer on Xianyu when I was traveling with my date and happily enjoying the scenery and I had to reply. You know, it just spoiled the atmosphere.

7.@Yezi, 27, intimacy counsellor, several thousand yuan (500 - 1,000 U.S. dollars) a month

I work with people who have intimacy issues. I help them find and analyze those issues and provide assistance and suggestions.

I first focused on intimacy issues to solve my own problem. When I was 23 years old, I realized that I must prepare in advance if I wanted to have a sweet relationship with someone and find a suitable life partner when I turned 26 or 27. Then I got into action.

But it proved to be very difficult. Still, I worked hard. Each day after work, I browsed through many profiles on different dating platforms, just like what I did as an HR in my company. I also asked my parents and my friends to arrange blind dates for me. Within two years, I met more than 100 people. Meeting them was really like interviewing people. Later, I realized that finding a partner is similar to finding a job. I must know what kind of person I am and what kind of person I need.

With those experiences, I accidentally met my husband another two years later and we got married.

That process would have been easier if someone could tell me how to find a right partner in a scientific way at the age of 23. Unfortunately, no one did that. So I decided to help others through my experiences. I shared them in livestreams. After watching my livestream, a visitor in her 40s said she realized that having a blind date is not a shame. “I can naturally announce that I’m going to have a blind date and find my own happiness through my efforts.” I’m very touched.

8.@Taozi, 26, amateur astrologer, 2,000 yuan (about 280 U.S. dollars) a year

I came to know astrology by accident. One day, the younger sister of one of my colleagues told us she can practice astrology. She brought a book that offers beginners a guide to tarot and some tarot cards. Then she showed us how to read those cards. While watching her doing it, I thought I might be able to do the same. That’s how I started learning astrology. I even bought some books and tarot cards.

Reading tarot cards to others is very similar to psychological counseling. Although the former is not as thought-provoking as the latter, it can indeed make people feel better when they are tired and consumed by trivial matters. The astrologer encourages them by telling them they are at a low ebb and things will get better. That serves as feedback from the universe and makes them believe in themselves. We all need a reward to stimulate us to push a huge ball on the flat ground.

Before taking an order, I will tell the customer that an astrologer is not a fortune teller. One is encouraged to change himself or herself and work hard to achieve what he or she wants, instead of waiting for something magical to save a relationship or solve problems in life.

The process of astrology by Taozi

Cost-effective sideline jobs

9.@Dahua, 31, operating automatic claw machine stores, 2 million yuan (about 280,000 U.S. dollars) a year

I made money by opening claw machine stores. The process is very easy. Buy machines and dolls from manufacturers, rent a space in a shopping mall, and then put the machines there. I mainly operate small stores and can’t earn too much from each store. And the revenue depends heavily on location and mall traffic.

I started the project in June 2022, when a childhood friend of mine was attracting businesses for a shopping mall and recommended it to me. Rents were extremely low during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Due to travel restrictions, many people were unable to travel outside their province during the summer holiday. As they stayed put and walked into local shopping malls, our project went well surprisingly. Later I expanded the project, and now I run 20 stores, big or small. Without excluding rents and doll costs, my stores took in around 2 million yuan (about 278,000 U.S. dollars) in 2023.

10.@Amibayuanchong, 32, obtaining occupational certificates, 2,000 yuan (about 300 U.S. dollars)

I’ve heard about job subsidies for a long time, although I’ve never tried to apply for them. One day, I saw a government notice about training e-commerce specialists. The notice said trainees can attend training and take an exam for free, and get a subsidy of more than 1,500 yuan (about 208 U.S. dollars) after passing the exam and getting a certificate. And with the certificate, the holder may get extra points for applying for household registration in Hangzhou, the city where I work.

Working in e-commerce, I thought it might be a good chance to learn something and improve my job skills. Even if I couldn’t, I can still get a subsidy. So I signed up.

Interestingly, when all the applicants took part in offline training, I found I was the only one who really works in e-commerce. Fine. Most just wanted to get the subsidy.

Subsidy approved

11.@Yy, 23, buying lottery tickets, 10,000 yuan (about 1,400 U.S. dollars)

I had planned to get some good luck by buying a lottery ticket before my job interview. It never occurred to me that I could win 10,000 yuan (about 1390 U.S. dollars) the first time I bought one. It was beyond my wildest expectation. After all, the only thing I did was scratch with all my strength.

12.@Pengpeng, 30, operating a self-serve car wash, 100,000 yuan (about 14,000 U.S. dollars) within two years

During the two years after I resigned, I invested 100,000 yuan (about 13,900 U.S. dollars) into operating a 24-hour self-serve car wash near my home. I entertained no hope of earning big money from it. I thought it would be satisfying enough if I could earn 3,000 to 4,000 yuan a month to cover my daily expenses. Unexpectedly, I got my investment back in just one year.

Moreover, I got a lot of free time. Every day my job was to do some cleaning at the car wash, if everything went well, and that took just 10 minutes or so. Instead of working around the clock, I suddenly had a lot of free time and felt that the power of my life was cut off.

What followed was a period when I explored the real, ordinary person I am. Before operating the car wash, I was that kind of person who escapes from problems. After graduating with a master’s degree in music, I became a teacher at a public high school. The job offered high stability, but I was frustrated by the intense internal strife in the office, the huge pressure from my colleagues, and the salary. That was different from the atmosphere in university. In the end, I resigned and became a stay-at-home mom.

I actually enjoyed my role at home, but deep in my heart, a voice told me to go outside and do something worthy of my efforts to pursue education and my parents’ efforts to provide for me over these years. After starting my business, I have met many people I would have had no chance to meet and experienced things I would have had no chance to experience. I understood how to communicate with others, and would also be afraid to get calls from the customers at midnight. I konw that this entrepreneurial experience taught me something I didn’t learn in the past.

Lovely sideline jobs

13.@Pangda, 30, watering plants, 1,782 yuan (about 250 U.S. dollars)

I love plants and have kept them for three to four years. I can not only keep my own plants alive, but also help take care of others’ plants. Finding my ability to do that, I came up with the idea of helping other plant lovers water their plants when they are not at home. I priced each visit at about 100 yuan (about 13.9 U.S. dollars) , which includes a starting fare and a distance-based fare.

At first, I didn’t expect to take any orders. After all, who would spend so much just to find someone who can water plants for them? Well, I was wrong. I took 13 orders one after another and earned 1,782 yuan (about 250 U.S. dollars).

The home of each customer is a secret garden. Their plants told me something about them even if we didn’t meet in person. For example, those who love tropical plants are usually addicted to keeping them in large numbers. Particularly, I’ve seen lots of tropical plants in the family Araceae, such as anthurium, begonia, monstera, and philodendron. They may have hundreds of flowerpots for them and the plants grow well.

I live in Beijing, many of my customers are Beipiao, or Beijing drifters, a term used to describe people outside Beijing who came to the city to seek a living or success. Most Beijing drifters rent a room in the city and are not willing to buy too many things, especially plants, for their room. The homes of my customers, however, were different. The place where they live is full of vitality. Perhaps people who keep many plants are those who love life.

A plant before and after being watered

14.@Jin, 26, joining commercial dance performances, 400 yuan (about 50 U.S. dollars) a day

I’ve been learning swing dance at a dance studio for one and a half years. Since I dance well, the studio invited me to join dance performances.

So I made some money by chance. I just love swing dance and didn’t expect to perform it in public. We sometimes dance at shopping malls and sometimes perform in other places, like at fairs.

15.@Eunice, 26, online part-time English translator, 150 yuan (about 20 U.S. dollars)

I’ve always had an interest in English, but it’s of no use in my work and life — my full-time job is gradually eroding my enthusiasm.

While at university, I met classmates who are positive about their future and work hard to pursue their dreams, as well as learned teachers who come from different cultures in the world. That changed after I graduated and entered the workplace. Suddenly, I became a depressed worker in a fourth tier city. The huge gap made me increasingly disappointed, feeling that I was living like the fabled frog in a pot of tepid water.

I decided to change the situation. I planned to find a part-time job as an online English translator and in this way improve my English. I was very excited when I got an order, although the expected pay was merely 150 yuan (about 21 U.S. dollars). While doing the task, I told myself: the job would improve my skill and I’m not doing something laborious. Every minute I spend is worth it. I’m happy to do so even if I couldn’t earn much.

16.@Keke, 29, advertising on social media, 500 yuan (about 70 U.S. dollars)

It’s a surprise that I made money.

The story began with my grandpa. My grandpa, who will soon turn 80 years old, has lots of hobbies. He likes shopping on his phone and studying Feng Shui (the traditional Chinese study of geomantic omens usually for buildings or cemeteries) and traditional Chinese medicine. He also loves food, from roast fish to milk tea and cola. One day, I found he bought cookies secretly and saw his comments about it: Good, Very good! Wow, he is so cute!

So I registered an account on Xiaohongshu, a popular lifestyle-sharing social platform in China, and shared interesting moments about my grandpa. Out of the blue, my posts got popular and many merchants messaged me, wishing to cooperate with me to advertise their products.

The first advertisement I posted was about a hemorrhoids cream. The funny thing is, my friends thought I have suffered from severe hemorrhoids.

17.@Shenshen, 30, drawing pet profile photos, earning tuition back

I’m a designer and I’m learning how to draw on the iPad.

One day, I drew a profile photo for my friend and her pet cat. Unexpectedly, my work got noticed by members of a cat group she joined and many asked me to draw a profile photo for them too. That’s how I got my sideline job of drawing customized profile photos. Lots of their cats are Devon Rex, requiring me to figure out the characteristics of different cats!

That took a lot of energy, but it was all worth the effort. So far I’ve basically earned back the tuition I paid to learn drawing, and my drawing skills have improved. Most importantly, my work has been recognized by others. You know, you can’t buy joy with money!

A work by Shenshen

Money-losing sideline jobs

18.@Guamezi, 28, filming, -60 yuan (about -8 U.S. dollars)

I earned 99 yuan (about 13 U.S. dollars) for filming at Disneyland and then spent 159 yuan (about 21 U.S. dollars) buying a LinaBell toy doll.

19.@Tangcheng, 41, selling food on a stall, 200 yuan (about 30 U.S. dollars)

I work at a state-owned enterprise full time. Wanting to start my own business, I set up a stall my spare time to sell roasted milk tea and new Chinese-style tea drinks. I made just 200 yuan in the end.

I also tried to make and sell roasted goose legs, but didn’t sell any. I gave them to my friends.

20.@Xiaolanhui, 33, taking part in company contests, 650 yuan (about 100 U.S. dollars)

I live in a third-tier city and work at a state-owned enterprise full time, with a monthly salary of 5,000 to 6,000 yuan (about 695 to 834 U.S. dollars). I didn’t have a skill to run a sideline, and neither did I know other ways to make money. Still, I made some money in a special way. I signed up for a company contest (China’s state-owned enterprises have a tradition of holding different types of contests. Each year my company organizes knowledge contests, covering areas like laws and procurement, and also fire drills. Rewards are offered to the winners). More importantly, I carefully prepared for the contest and won second prize.

Encouraged by the result, I took part in more contests over the following three months. Overall I had good performance, winning an award in some contests. Each contest drew dozens of participants. The reward, however, was not high, 300 yuan (about 40 U.S. dollars) for first prize and 150 yuan (about 21 U.S. dollars) for second prize. Finally, I got 650 yuan (about 90 U.S. dollars) after participating in several contests.

I’d been such an active presence in those contests that my superior noticed me and listed me as a top candidate for the contests, asking me to sign up for any not-so-professional contest.

So sad.

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