| JSW its good to see you enjoying my old hometown. Next to Shanghai San Fran is my favorite City! It is hard for USA to understand this system. My Girlfriend lives in Shanghai with her father's family. However she was born in Chongqing. Her Hukou is there. To get a passport, get married we have to go back to where she was born. I live in Phoenix now but was born in NYC. Imagine everytime I needed to do something with the government I had to fly back to NYC and go to my old neighborhood. My Girlriend's father needed serious medical treatment. He is from Shanghai but was married and lived in Chongqing. He had to come back to Shanghai to get medical care and separate from his wife for one half year. Its unlikely the government will eliminate this system. It acts more as a security system so the government can track everyone carefully and favors regionalism which is very strong in China for thousands of years. It was worse before. When I first went to China in 1993 Foreigners had to use certificates and could not use chinese currency. If we traveled and there was no International Hotel you had to register with the police. The government discouraged people from moving around and different regions did not welcome migrants. Things are definitely more relaxed now. Shanghai has literally millions of migrants who come there for work but call another province there home. |
Hukou System in China