FIGURE5 People from Chinese inland provinces that have lower wages and Human Development Index (HDI) values have moved to cities and provinces with higher HDIs and incomes.
HDI
0.600–0.699 0.700–0.749 0.750–0.799 0.800–0.849 0.850+
HEILONOJIANO
JILIN
LIAONING
XINJIANG
INNER MONGOLIA
BEIJING
GANSU
TIANJIN
Ye l l ow Sea
SHANXI
NINGXIA
HEBEI
SHANDONG
QINGHAI
CHONGQUING
HENAN
JIANDSU
TIBET
ANHUI
SHANGHAI
HUBEI
CHONGQUING
SICHUAN
ZHEJIANG
JIANGXI
HUNAN
North China S e a
GUZHOU
Number of migrants 1995–2000 >2 500 000
FUJIAN
YUNNAN
GUANGXI
TAIWAN
1 000 000–2 500 000
GUANDONG
0
300
600 km
South China S e a
<1 000 000
HAINAN
Source: Map drawn by Spatial Vision
SkillBuilder discussion Geographic inquiry
1. Use FIGURE5 to describe the migration movements in China. 2. Does this happen in other countries? Can you give examples?
Pull factors in China Pull factors are factors that attract people to move to a particular place. Economic factors include higher incomes achievable in a city. The average income of rural residents is about one-fifth that of urban residents in China. Social factors include more opportunities for career development, access to a more modern urban lifestyle and access to improved infrastructure and technology. Push factors in China Push factors are factors that encourage people to move away from a place. Increasing agricultural productivity since the late 1970s has resulted in fewer labourers being needed on farms and thus a huge surplus of rural workers. Agricultural production has become less profitable, so workers have been driven to cities to try to improve their economic situation. Political factors are also influential. China’s central planners have encouraged local leaders in poor regions to encourage people to move to the cities. Their slogan was ‘the migration of one person frees the entire household from poverty’.
TOPIC15 Changing nations – urbanisation and migration 437
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