Map showing movement of youths between provinces and from town to country. Published as part of a report to the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office titled ‘Movement of Population in China’, published September 1967. Catalogue ref: FO 1110/2318
Transcript
MAP B
[Arrow]: Movement of youth from one province to another.
[Asterisk]: Provinces where youth have been sent from town to country.
Map description
Map of China with arrows going between different cities and provinces.
Arrows go from:
- Shanghai to Urumchi (Xinjiang).
- Anhui to Xinjiang.
- Wuhan (Hubei) to Xinjiang.
- Beijing to Hohhot (Inner Mongolia).
- Beijing to Ningxia.
- Beijing to Tibet.
- Shandong to Lhasa (Tibet).
- Guangzhou to Tibet.
- Guangzhou to Hainan.
- Chengdu (Sichuan) to Yunnan.
- Fukien to Guangxi.
- Between Heilongjiang and Shanxi.
Provinces labelled with an asterisk:
- Fujian
- Guangdong
- Guangxi
- Hebei
- Heilongjiang
- Henan
- Hubei
- Hunan
- Inner Mongolia
- Jiangsu
- Jiangxi
- Jilin
- Liaoning
- Shandong
- Shanxi
- Shaanxi
- Sichuan
- Zhejiang
Look at sources 2a-c, which all relate to the movement of young people in China from towns and cities into the countryside to do manual labour. This is known as the ‘Down to the Countryside Movement’.
- Look at Source 2a. What percentage of China’s provinces had youths move from towns to the countryside?
- How far did young people generally have to go when moving from one province to another? (You see the distances using online map distance calculators.)
- How would you feel if you had to move that far?
- Look at Source 2b. Why did Mao believe that young people had to go into the countryside?
- Look at Source 2c. What did people living in the countryside think about Mao’s policies? Name at least three complaints that they had.
- What consequences do you think the Down to the Countryside Movement would have had?