Seasonal Senior Migrants Society
Tropical Sanya in Hainan Province maintains weather as pleasant as spring even in the dead of winter. It is known for sunlight, sandy beaches and coconut trees swaying in the breeze. Every winter, the city, situated at the southernmost tip of Hainan Island, attracts streams of holiday makers from all regions of the country: Some stay for months and don’t return home until spring is drawing near.
Such resident-visitors are referred to as “holiday migrants,” most of whom are retirees.
Endless Spring
At 6:30 a.m., Wang Fengsheng, wearing a short-sleeved shirt, strolls across the bridge over the Linchun River to begin his morning exercise in Egret Park. At 65, Wang has spent three winters in a row in Sanya. While he enjoys the pleasant morning in the park, his hometown 4,000 kilometers away in northeastern China is frozen solid at minus 20 degrees Celsius.
Many northeasterners who once only dreamt of living on the seashore now enjoy it every winter.
Egret Park, in the old district of Sanya, is one of the most popular gathering places for the “migrant elderly.” As night falls, they dance yangge (a folk dance popular in northern China) in the small square on Linchun Road on the other side of the park. Most of the dancers hail from the northeast.
Ms. Yang, a native of Jiamusi, Heilongjiang Province, has spent five winters there. “I’ve been suffering from tracheitis,” she explains. “I coughed a lot during the bitter northeastern winters and spent a lot of money seeing doctors. The cough never happens when I am here.”
The “migrant birds” phenomenon has enhanced the local economy tremendously. Vehicles with plates from all over the country can be found almost everywhere in Sanya. Some drug stores advertise that they accept health insurance from Heilongjiang Province.
Statistics from the Aging Office of the Hainan Provincial Government show that during the peak season in winter, some 450,000 migrant seniors rush to the province to relax, preserve their health and spend their retirement in the warm environment.
Zhang Shuquan just spent his fourth winter in Sanya. “In Changchun (the provincial seat of Jilin), I spend about 4,000 yuan every winter just on heating,” he illustrates. “The monthly rent here is 1,000 yuan. I simply reallocated my heating money to four months of housing in Sanya. Everything else here is affordable as well. My wife and I only spend about 1,000 yuan a month on food and daily necessities, which is about the same as Changchun.”
Rising Real Estate
Some seniors rent houses or apartments specifically designed for the elderly, and others buy homes.
Mr. Zhao, a 67-year-old retired engineer from Beijing, bought a house in Baoting County, just outside of Sanya, so he and his wife could escape Beijing’s winter haze. He was heading back to Sanya after a quick trip to Beijing. “I went back to pick up my grandson,” Zhao grinned. “I want him to stay with us for the winter.”
Mr. Zhao is not an individual case. The great influx of the “migrant birds” has undoubtedly caused a bump in real estate prices in Sanya and neighboring towns. “During this year’s Spring Festival (China’s biggest holiday), many people from Beijing came to seek affordable housing,” reveals a real estate agent. “I actually sold out of inventory. Over the last few years, Sanya’s neighbors, including Baoting, Lingshui, and Dongfang, have seen thriving real estate markets.”
This Spring Festival, many outsiders made special visits to Hainan to buy houses. Mr. Sun from Beijing, for instance, bought a 2-bedroom condominium with floor space of 90 square meters at Qingshui Bay, adjacent to Sanya. “Real estate is so cheap here compared to Beijing, where the standard price is about 100,000 yuan per square meter,” he sighs. However, Sun, who was born in the 1980s, bought the house for his parents. Over the last few years, Sanya has seen an unending boom in real estate, and Sun expects his investment to only
increase in value.
Miss Chen, a local taxi driver, said that almost half of the houses in her neighborhood of Jinling (Golden Range) were bought by seniors from the north. When winter arrives, the community becomes bustling as many migrant seniors move in. The elderly sit in the sun and play poker or do other activities all winter. But, with the arrival of April, everything quiets down and many shops are closed.
Crowded Paradise
In January 2010, the State Council issued Opinions on Accelerating the Development of the Construction of Hainan International Tourist Island, officially lifting the campaign to make Hainan an international tourist hub into a strategy of national importance. According the plan, by 2020, Hainan will have become a world-class holiday resort.
The implementation of an offshore duty-free policy has made Sanya a shopping paradise. Every Spring Festival holiday, the international duty free shopping center at Haitang Bay welcomes thousands of shoppers. It is the world’s largest duty free store, with floor space of over 70,000 square meters. Many retail vendors of famous international brands frequently enjoy lines out of their doors.
Winter is the peak season for the influx of seniors, and they place considerable strain on Hainan’s infrastructure. Particularly, during the Spring Festival, traffic becomes worse, hotel rooms are hard to come by and parking is a pain.
Furthermore, medical services and public health resources become expensive in winter due to surging demand. As a whole, Hainan still lags behind other provinces in medical service facilities. Only a few medium-sized medical institutions can be found in Sanya, and the growing winter population tends to require more frequent medical care. Needless to say, it’s more difficult and expensive to see a doctor during winter in Hainan.
In contrast with other popular winter getaway destinations such as Hawaii and Phuket Island, Hainan is plagued by a “squeezed winter” caused by the seasonal migration. Many world-famous five-star hotels sit empty most of the year but cannot meet demand during winter.
A major task for Hainan is constructing the necessary facilities to meet the seasonal housing and medical services demands of the senior demographic, which in turn will help make the island an international holiday destination.