Chinese cities mull registration reform

[Gerald]

The village of Wa Yao, just outside the city of Chengdu, is known for its strawberries, which grow in neat rows in fields between the houses.

People from the city come to pick their own and some of the early, high-priced strawberries are sold in markets as far away as Singapore.

But Wa Yao is also known for something else: Chengdu's city government is using the village to try out a series of pioneering changes.

China's household registration system, or hukou, has long separated people into either rural or urban citizens, with those in the cities usually getting better services.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12586752

Note:7 March 2011 Last updated at 00:22 GMT

[Oberon]

I shall have to implement this in my China that I'm playing on a nationsim.

It's about time that something like this was done in China and it will be popular for the people in the rural areas...but I can foresee opposition from the coast. However something desperately needs to be done to narrow the gap between the interior and the coast before a second revolution occurs.

[the_tyrant]

ahh yes, the hukou. The book that records all the members of a family. Its like a social security card, except its a book.

Its the document that gets all the benefits, not the person

For a kid to go to school, his parents would have to bring the hukou to sign up.
Without it, he cannot enter school

also, there is only one hukou per family(usually on the male side).
A good way for Chinese parents to make sure their children marry a spouse that they like is to deny their children the hukou.

If you are not entered on your family's hukou, you are in essence an illegal citizen, without any state benefits

the stupidest idea in history, Why connect the whole family's social security cards into one book?