I've wondered the same thing! I guess the answer is weird schedules? People with weekend jobs get Wednesdays off? Or maybe there's just soooo many people it seems crazy packed, but if you were to extrapolate the amount of peope you'd see at mall on Wednesday afternoon in a city of 0.5 million to a city of 20 million, the ratio might be the same?

I've wondered the same. I can't figure it out either. Unless they're all taking random "sick" days.

Relatives of people with guanxi, and proud to (pretend to) be one.

Some may have persuaded their relatives to support them while they are free, to promote their health or relationship opportunities.

sheer numbers, I think is what I and we have a hard time comprehending...I know I do.

They are the people who work at 24h places (like McDonald's), officially for these places that never close China recognizes the use of a 3x8 timetable system inherited from France and probably brought back by Deng Xiaping who studied/worked there when he was young.

its the same mysterium how they own houses and porsches with a salary of 5k

You should realize the economy here is a complete fabrication...It's built on swindling..as long as you can be swindled, it works for them and makes no sense to you.

You should realize the economy here is a complete fabrication...It's built on swindling..as long as you can be swindled, it works for them and makes no sense to you.

Remember, there are alot of old people in China so it's therefore quite likely that you'll bump into many retirees in the middle of the day. Then there are all of those housewives, xiaosans etc.

What you all know is Chinese are paid crappy salary and work extra hours with extremely low efficiency. And what do you not know is this is what exactly they are doing during 'working hours'. I mean, if you are only paid at 3000 in Beijing and are expected to stay till 9 pm for a 8 hours workload, people will 'disappear' from the office after they went to the bathroom and then re-appear in a shopping mall or the summer palace. 

Ps. I am Chinese and this is talked from experience. Where there is a hidden policy, there's a hidden way to get around it. 

Aren't there a lot of tourist and business travelers in Beijing?

Probably most of them are also wondering the same thing as you, "What's going on!?!?! "

Beijing has expanded from three rings to what, five? Quite a few peasants (and their kids) who used to farm at the outskirt of big cities got compensated handsomely, this happened all over prc, not just Beijing. I was told 8-10 apartments weren't uncommon, depending on the size of the plot of land they were on. You live in one and sell another one or two for immediate windfall (get a BMW, trip to Europe or whatever), rent out the remaining and receive a significant stable monthly income. I bet most of these folks find shopping centers more appealing than school.

Sorry to hear you lost your job, Hal. Best of luck picking up where you left off asap.

To answer your question, I've noticed the same thing. I'll take a half day for some reason or other and go shopping only to find the places packed at 10:30 AM on a workday. Doesn't make sense to me either.

I think the reason for this has a few parts to it, with each individual case probably having 1 or more of these factors going on.

1. Like others have said. People get their farmland buyouts. Means there is a lot more money floating around in the system than there should be based on people's incomes. 

2. There may not be that many genuinely successful people as a %, but the people around the ones who exist are shameless about going to them with their hands out like beggars. It might be that one successful uncle is giving an allowance to 6 or 7 working age people who are now "too good" for the jobs they are capable of getting. So it's kind of a multiplier effect on the number of "independently wealthy" people you see out there.

The existence of a rich uncle in the family means that all those people are suddenly too highborn to work as office drones or retail clerks, but that doesn't make them nearly smart or qualified enough to do something 'worthy' of their new station in life. And since they don't have a culture that respects working they'd rather freeload than work something beneath them. Nothing else to do but go shopping.

3. People loitering around products they can't actually buy. A lot of these chumps at malls might just be run of the mill unemployed people. Just because somebody is hanging around a luxury mall doesn't mean they might not be flat broke. Could be an unemployed ant-tribe member living real grubby and just wanting to hang out someplace nice. Could be some working class kids out of work and living at home. Just wants to get out of the house for a while. Just cause their family lives in a big city doesn't mean they aren't mortgaged out the ass and barely making ends meet.

Remember too, that a "quiet day at home" is something we can look forward to because our homes are usually comfortable places to be in. I don't think i'm doing jack shit today. But so far that's meant hitting the weights in my home gym, cooking up some salmon filet, and now fucking around on a powerful computer in a comfy chair at a nice desk. We have it good. 

For your average younger local they're either living at home or living REALLY fucking grubby. They probably have 3 outfits of halfway decent looking clothes and a smartphone and that's the only reason they can look 'normal' out in public. If you saw how they lived you'd realize they are really poor. Probably live in moldy shitbox apartments shared with way too many people maybe without even private bathrooms. If I had to live like that i'd probably be loitering around in public a lot more too. Even if you're living with your parents in a decent place it's still not "your" space to relax in. There's nothing else to do so they hang out at nice malls because those are really clean, comfortable spaces that they don't have access to on their own. 

Maybe they are self-employed. My parents are self-employed and they can hang out on the weekdays.

or they get money by renting house to people. Or they have rich husbands or some might just between jobs like you. Some are old ppl don't work.