China’s ‘migratory bird’ pensioners flocking south to Hainan in winter put strain on island’s resources
Growing trend of retired people from frigid northeast buying apartments in sunny southern province to escape winter cold causes problems for hospitals and pushes up food and property prices
Blessed by palm-fringed beaches and balmy weather, the island province of Hainan is drawing masses of retirees fleeing the biting cold of their hometowns.
“At home in Harbin, it (can be) minus 30 degrees (minus 22 Fahrenheit), it’s unbearable. But here the climate is perfect,” says a 71-year-old pensioner who gives only her surname, Wang.
Hailing from the capital of the polluted, frigid, rust-belt province of Heilongjiang on the Siberian border, Wang and her husband have migrated each winter to the Hainan resort town of Sanya for the past eight years.
“Here we can breathe, and that warmth is better for our health,” says Qi Ningxia, a 60-year-old asthma-sufferer from Heilongjiang, who has joined Wang in waving brightly coloured fans in a group exercise-dance near the shore of the South China Sea.
“And we find so many people here from our province. We are sure we will not be bored,” Qi says.
