Welcome to China’s Florida: Sun, Sand and Retired Snowbirds
9, 2017
SANYA, China — While the white-sand beaches and five-star international resorts are meant to be the main attraction, for the hundreds of
thousands of Chinese retirees who descend upon this tropical city every winter, dancing on the seaside boardwalk is often the real draw.
On a recent morning, more than 60 retirees gathered together in the community recreation room to rehearse sentimental favorites like "Onwards, Chinese Communist Party"
and more recent hits like "Together Build the Chinese Dream." Accompanying the chorus was a boisterous band of graying musicians, including a piccoloist and an electric guitarist.
Chinese said that Once you retire and you’ve saved up enough money, you don’t want to go back to living in the big cities,
Every winter for the past 13 years, Ms. Xu, a retired airline worker,
and Maomao have left their home in the frigid northeastern city of Harbin to stay in Sanya.
Mr. Zhao said that Before, we thought retired life would be very dull, just sitting on little stools in the sun and shriveling up and growing old,
Several months ago, Wen Zhiguo, manager of a local hotel
that caters to aging snowbirds, was forced to move to the outskirts of the city after the local government tore down his seaside facilities.
Several years ago, the local government began razing large tracts of housing in the city, in what many
see as an ongoing effort to drive out the often frugal snowbirds by denying them places to rent.
Like Ms. Xu and Maomao, more than half of the nearly 400,000 retired snowbirds who flock to Sanya every year are said to hail from China’s northeast.