ABSTRACT
It has been stated elsewhere within this book, and on several occasions, that the Chinese government is driven by a socio-economic imperative to generate income to address the problems of poverty in China. Much of that poverty can be found in both rural and urban areas, but it can be argued that urban poverty is, to some degree, a reflection of rural poverty in that urban areas attract migration, both legal and illegal, because of the low rural incomes. Solving the issue of rural poverty thus helps address, to a degree, the problems of urban poverty by minimizing the need to migrate and accept low income jobs and poor living conditions in urban sites. For example, many construction workers in cities live on the building sites or in poor housing of a temporary nature as in other similar areas of the world such as Dubai. This permits the remission of monies to families back in the rural areas. The Golden Weeks possess enormous emotional importance as being one of the few times in the year when, for several families, parents can be reunited with their young children who will be looked after by grandparents. In a family-oriented society the pains of economic growth are heavy burdens for the current generation of Chinese of working age, and this cannot be stressed too much. Its very commonality often goes unremarked, but the silence does not mean there is no sense of loss for many Chinese.
