Kelly's Homework(7)

Moreover, people who stick the opinion that the gap between city and countryside should be bridged because they think it can stop the migration from rural areas to urban areas. The migration of rural labour to urban areas in China since the mid-1980s has created the largest labour flow in the world history. A commonly cited figure puts the number of rural migrations residing in urban areas at 50 million in the mid-1990s. (Yaohui Zhao,1999) Lacking of labour force makes the farm lands abandoned and be left uncultivated. As is known to all, China owns a large population, it is difficult to feed so many people without enough farm lands. Besides, this also causes a big pressure to the lands in urban areas, the housing prices has gone up quickly during recent years. As a result, the Chinese government has to launch a policy to restrict migration from rural to urban areas. Hopefully narrowing the gap between city and countryside can slow the migration.

Reference:
Yaohui Zhao (1999) ‘Leaving the countryside: Rural-To-Urban Migration Decisions in China’, The American Economic Review, Vol.89, No.2, (eds) Papers and Proceedings of the One Hundred Eleventh Annual Meeting of the American Economic Association, pp.281-286.