To approach the question of the changing urban embeddedness of inequality, I examine begging performances in the metropolis of Guangzhou—a vanguard of urban development in South China—and answer: How and why do beggars appropriate public space to receive alms and adapt their tactics in relation to space? How do beggars’ performances change through time and in reaction to urban modernisation? Taking historical research on panhandling in Chinese cities into account, I will focus on data collected in the early 2010s and the 2020s. As specific ways of asking for alms are well established in the Chinese culture, the study shows which practices still shape daily encounters in the new millennium. I argue that panhandling co-produces the commons and contributes to the spatial culture of religious settings and areas of commerce and entertainment. At the same time, beggars are adapting to the challenges of “modernisation”, defined here as the ideology of equating progress with standardised order, efforts to commodify public space, or the emergence of an urban realm where anonymity prevails. Thus, panhandling in the modern era requires various forms of capital, skills, and investments, contrasting with the capabilities of those relying on donations.