THE cheongsam modelling contest starts at 7pm; at 8pm it is group dances in the style of ethnic Uighurs from China’s far west, and of fan-waving north-easterners from provinces adjoining Russia and North Korea. Participants and spectators alike are pensioners: retired miners, teachers and industrial workers. They sit in the evening cool, gossiping and applauding. A man in a Hawaiian shirt keeps the beat with castanets. Fei Liyue, a former construction manager, says that he and his relatives come every evening. He is 3,200km (2,000 miles) from his home in the bleak oil city of Daqing.
Almost everyone is, like Mr Fei, from the rust belt of the north-east, a region that is gripped in winter by an Arctic chill. But the scene here is by the beach in the subtropical city of Sanya in Hainan, an island province as far south from their native region as it is possible to go without leaving the country (see map). Palm fronds and bougainvillea rustle in the breeze. Bikini-clad tourists dash by. The crowds of elderly visitors (some are pictured) are something new in Sanya. They may herald a profound social change.
Source: China http://ift.tt/249mNHO
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