There were no passports and virtually no restrictions on immigration, making for perhaps the biggest migration in human history.
The move of its peasants to the cities is the greatest migration in human history.
They represent the largest migration in human history; their experiences have changed the way they work and marry and live and think.
THE greatest wave of voluntary migration in human history transformed China's cities, and the global economy, in a single generation.
PAGE C1 THE ENGINES OF CHINA'S GROWTH China's boom has been fueled by what Leslie T. Chang calls the "the largest migration in human history" -- the movement of millions of migrant workers into the country's cities.
Since the 1970s, China has witnessed the largest migration in human history, Chang observes, "three times the number of people who emigrated to America from Europe over a century".
It involved the largest mass migration in human history, as 14 million people were displaced, and up to a million died as a result of sectarian violence, starvation and disease.
The Great Wall road may never have materialized, but plenty of others are being carved through the countryside to accommodate what Hessler calls "the largest migration in human history," with nearly one-tenth of the nation's billion-plus people moving from rural areas to cities and factory zones.
Speaking of the early years of the last decade, he writes, "To drive across China was to find yourself in the middle of the largest migration in human history -- nearly one-tenth of the population was on the road, finding new lives away from home".
Check out the introductory essay, or perhaps the entries on Metaphors, Overused words and Journalese to get startedMovement of the people Since 1978, China has experienced the largest internal migration in human history, with nearly 160m people leaving rural areas to seek work in coastal cities.
Mr Hessler did not use a GPS device since he was worried that he might be accused of carrying out illegal surveying work (though this reviewer has found Chinese GPS technology an invaluable aid to exploring off the beaten track).In the rest of the book Mr Hessler immerses himself in the lives of ordinary Chinese at opposite ends of what he calls the biggest migration in human history.
