Al-Jazeera: People & Power — Moving China

Al-Jazeera is not the news channel one typically goes to for China news, but they have just come up with an excellent documentary that we felt compelled to share with you. It offers us a glimpse of what life is like for the more than 150 million people who have left their homes in rural China in search of a better paying job in the cities. It's the biggest mass migration the world has ever seen, and it is happening right now. The camera makes its way into the dilapidated shacks that some of these migrant workers call home in Shanghai, and follows others back to their hometowns which have seen a rapid depopulation over the last few years. Everyone of working age has left for the city, leaving the really old to take care of the fields, and the really young. Life is tough, everyone somehow gets by, but nobody really knows what's in store for tomorrow. Great work by Al-Jazeera for putting a human face to a phenomenon that is so profoundly changing China's social landscape.