Closer Look: Hospital Scalpers Anger Many, Stay in Business Anyway

(Beijing) – A man we'll call Zhang Yong used to be a welder in Heilongjiang Province, but the economy in China's industrial heartland in the northeast has soured, so he has taken up unique employment in Beijing.

Each morning he rides his electric motorbike to Beijing Union Medical College Hospital, one of the top medical facilities in the capital, and walks into the lobby. Zhang, who is in his early 40s, then starts his day selling appointments for highly sought-after medical specialists to patients on the black market.