China plans to relocate 250 million farmers into Cities across China over the next 20 years. I’m interviewing two film-makers, Ting Song and Adam Smith, about their thoughts and views on this phenomenon.

Their documentary The ‘Land of Many Palaces’ follows a government official whose job is to convince farmers that their lives will be better off in the city, and a farmer in one of the last remaining villages in the region who is pressured to move.

Today, in the first part of a two part series, Ting and Adam are at the International Documentary Film Festival in Brussels at a screening of their documentary. Today they will discuss:

The exodus of farmers from the countryside to Cities and ‘Ghost’ CitiesDifficulties in taking on a new life identityBasic rights and the Chinese ‘Hukou’ Registration systemThe advantages for people abandoning the countrysideThe Chinese ‘Hukou’ Registration systemHow are farmer’s quickly turned into City residents?