The “migratory birds”

Who they are

In Chinese they are called hòuniǎo, migratory birds. The term means pensioners who spend the winter in the south — and in Sanya they overwhelmingly come from north-east China, the region once called Manchuria: Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning. There the thermometer drops to minus twenty degrees and below in January.

According to surveys, about three quarters of Sanya's migratory birds come from the north-east, especially many from Harbin. The Chinese have a nickname for it: “Sanya, Heilongjiang Province”. In some neighbourhoods you hear more north-eastern dialect than Hainanese in winter, and when two strangers meet they recognise each other as fellow provincials by their accent.

How many there are

There are no exact figures, but the scale is enormous. In 2014 Sanya's association of incoming seniors counted almost 400,000 pensioners from elsewhere, around 200,000 of them from Harbin alone. In 2016 official statistics spoke of about 450,000 migratory birds across Hainan. Today the provincial government cites more than a million per winter.

A deputy mayor of Sanya once put it bluntly: if the hundreds of thousands from the north left the city, it would be empty overnight.

Why they come

In one survey more than 90 per cent named the winter itself as the main reason. Many suffer from joint and respiratory complaints in the cold that ease in the tropical climate. In a Chinese report a pensioner describes how, on arrival at Sanya airport, the first thing he does is take off his knee brace — and walk without pain for the first time in months.

Behind this lies the biggest upheaval in recent Chinese history. The north-east was the centre of state heavy industry: steel, coal, engineering. In the 1990s many of these plants were closed or restructured and the region became China's rust belt. Between 2016 and 2025 the three north-eastern provinces together lost more than nine million inhabitants, and their population is among the oldest in the country.

Anyone there with a company pension and a paid-off flat can afford something, in a country with big regional price differences, that would be unthinkable elsewhere: half a year in the tropics. Not as a luxury but as a matter of arithmetic.

An infrastructure of their own

A whole economy has grown up around the migratory birds. Around 3,000 people live in Haipo village in Sanya — and every winter almost 40,000 guests stay there. Many families have added storeys to their houses and rent rooms for a few hundred to a few thousand yuan a month, some promising north-eastern cooking. Add to that care homes and hundreds of housing estates built specifically for winterers.

Even health insurance has adapted. Policyholders from Heilongjiang could settle treatment in Sanya directly with their card — according to Chinese reports around ten years before this became common between provinces elsewhere. And Hainan tries to make use of its guests' experience: at so-called “migratory-bird talent” stations, retired professionals teach, advise and make music as volunteers.

Where it chafes

The influx has made Sanya one of China's most expensive housing markets, in a province that is economically among the weaker ones. For many locals housing became unaffordable; in 2018 Hainan therefore introduced purchase restrictions for buyers from outside.

Add to that the hospitals, noticeably fuller in winter, and everyday culture: the cuisine, volume and manners of the north-east differ markedly from Hainan's. You can even hear it in the squares — in winter the square-dance music switches from Hainanese bamboo dance to the north-eastern folk theatre Errenzhuan.

What you see

The best way in is the morning. Between about seven and nine there is training at Sanya Bay and in the parks on a scale unknown in Europe: sword and fan dancing, tai chi, choirs singing songs from the 1950s to 70s, regular mahjong rounds at fixed spots. Some wear winter jackets at 25 degrees because that's what they're used to.

In the evening everyone heads to Egret Park on the Sanya River. There people dance from just before sunset until after ten, one group after another. If you watch in a friendly way, you'll often be invited to join in.

The counter-movement

The migratory birds now fly in both directions. In summer the north-east courts pensioners from the hot south: Heilongjiang alone reports a million summer guests between May and September. Anyone who danced in Sanya in winter may meet their dance group again in Harbin in July.