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Did China get rid of the hukou system? Otherwise wouldn't people still need documents to go and stay in their capital? You should update the wikipedia page if
by gaadd33 9y ago
Did China get rid of the hukou system? Otherwise wouldn't people still need documents to go and stay in their capital?
You should update the wikipedia page if it's been repealed everywhere, the current page just says that small cities have had restrictions abolished but large cities are still under tight control.
- mstaoru 9y agoMost foreign people tend to overestimate the impact of hukou on normal daily life. You don't need it for anything, except things like getting your kids into free public school. You can totally go to another city, find a job, rent a room and work, save money, get a mortgage, buy an apartment, marry, have kids, put them in a paid public school and generally live your life.
- gaadd33 9y agoOh interesting, reading the wikipedia page made it seem like a person was a second class citizen similar to being black in South Africa under apartheid; with no right to vote or buy property. It's surprising and interesting to learn that China has total internal freedom of movement, something that the USSR and similar countries never embraced.
- EliRivers 9y agoAre you still at risk from it? If a policeman (or powerful person able to tell the police what to do) decided he was sick of you, could he simply run you out of town (back to where you came from)?
- mstaoru 9y agoNot that I know of. Mostly hukou is used to "limit", not to outright prevent. E.g. in Shanghai and Guangzhou people without a local hukou cannot buy more than one apartment. It's much harder for people without hukou to get Shanghai car plates (that by themselves cost around ¥100k ~ $15,000 these days) that will allow taking numerous elevated roads during peak hours.