14M People Flee China’s Northeast: Empty Homes, Empty Roads, No One Left, Only Bears Remain

The Northeast is finished. People from the Northeast have all left. There is no way the Northeast can develop anymore. The region has suffered the most severe population loss, and children from the Northeast are the cheapest labor. This is the sentence I have heard the most from the children of the Northeast. And the biggest expectation our elders have for us is this. Children, go and leave. The further away, the better. It feels like our generation was born just to leave the Northeast, while revitalizing the region has become the biggest promise ever made to us. My home seems so big. So big that everything beyond the Shanghai Pass is still home. But my home also seems so small. So small that even children from the Northeast cannot stay. Recently, discussions about severe population loss and economic decline in China's Northeast region have once again become a hot topic. A couple from Guangdong traveled to the Northeast, where they were shocked by scenes that looked like an empty city. There isn't a single car here. It's truly deserted. The next day, they were shocked again when they saw something along the highway. The woman shouted at what she saw outside the window. Oh my, do you know what I just saw? Three big brown bears. Her husband replied. These bears should normally be deep inside the Daxing-An Mountains. But now you can see them right from the car. There are two more inside. Everyone take a look. This is National Highway 331. Anyone passing through here should be careful, especially people hiking, riding motorcycles, or cycling. We stopped by the roadside, but we didn't even dare turn off the engine. I was on a business trip to Jilin. I drove on highways and national roads. I'm now on National Highway 222 now. I noticed one thing. Compared with two years ago, there are far fewer cars on the roads between Liaoning and Jilin. It shows that the population loss is too serious. Look at the current situation in rural areas of the Northeast. Basically, in my village, once night falls, there is no one around. Even during the day, the roads are almost empty. Many of the houses on both sides of the road are abandoned. No one lives inside anymore. In recent years, media reports have often mentioned South Korea's low birth rate as it borders the Northeast region. One user said, Compared with our Northeast, South Korea is nothing. 0.7. If you are from Heilongjiang, you should know what this number means. This was the fertility rate of Heilongjiang in the 7th National Population Census. What does it mean? It means that on average, women of childbearing age in Heilongjiang give birth to only 0.76 children in their lifetimes. In the same year, South Korea, which is known around the world for having a low birth rate, has a rate of 0.84. Compared with us, they are still far behind. Heilongjiang is among the lowest in the world. A video posted by a person from the Northeast was both humorous and heartbreaking, and it sparked widespread discussion online. Forget about protecting the Siberian tigers for now. Protect the people of the Northeast first. Why? Because after I saw these statistics, my head went numb. The current situation is that people from the Northeast have become an endangered species. It has reached the point where they need to be artificially bred. What exactly caused this? Right now, people from the Northeast are having fewer children, and more people are dying. I want to ask, why are you having children? What about me? One reason is I don't have a wife. The second is I don't have money. The biggest reason is simply that I can't afford it. I want to ask, are you facing the same problem as me? Is it mainly because you don't have money? This is a very frustrating problem. The only thing I can do now is try to live two more years. That way, maybe I can still meet a quota, right? A woman from the Northeast shared her family tree, saying it was basically in a state of family extinction. When talking about the birth rate in the Northeast, first let me go through my own family. First, I want to clarify that I was born into a really large family. Starting from my great-grandfather's generation, my great-grandfather married twice. The second wife was my great-grandmother. His first wife had two children, my great-aunt and my fourth grand-uncle. My great-grandmother had seven children. Her third son is my grandfather. She also had an aunt of mine. That was the whole group of children. I won't even mention the other branches of the family because I can't remember them and I don't know them. Starting from my grandfather's generation, my grandfather had two children, my aunt and my father. Then my aunt had my older sister. My father had me, and that was it. Now let's look at my maternal grandfather's side. My maternal great-grandfather married once, and she had only one child, my grandfather. He was an only child. My grandfather married my grandmother, and they had my mother and my aunt. My mother had me. My aunt had two children. As for my generation, my sister's a lesbian, and I don't want to get married. My younger brother is 26 years old, and he's never been in a relationship. So far, he has only held hands with me and his younger sister. The vlogger said that after seeing her sister date many boyfriends, she decided not to get married. Her younger brother remains a question mark, and she's not sure what his future will be. But she wanted to say that it's not completely true that there will be no next generation. So what's the situation now? Her lesbian sister has a female dog that's been spayed. The vlogger herself is financially better off and has three dogs, all male and all neutered. Her younger brother has six cats and three dogs, and they've all been sterilized as well. Her younger sister is still young and doesn't have any pets yet. She later added, Our family is also in a state where everyone has fallen out of the game. If you ask whether my family pressures me to get married, honestly, sisters, no one does. They don't even get the chance to pressure me. My sister is already ahead of me. In the Northeast, we do have more divorces, but we have even fewer marriages. We have fewer births, but more deaths. Many people from the Northeast say that the severe population loss is linked to the region's prolonged economic weakness and low incomes. I returned to the Northeast a few days ago, and I noticed a phenomenon that exists in almost every city there. There are hardly any young people left in many families. But the problem is that many aspects of life there are truly not suitable for young people. The first issue is the job market. Salaries have not increased at all. I worked in Harbin 10 years ago, and my monthly salary was 4,000 yuan. Over the past four years, not only has it not increased, but because of the economic downturn and severe layoffs, benefits have actually become worse than before. Most jobs only pay around 2,000 to 3,000 yuan a month. My current monthly salary is around 3,000 yuan, and I still have a mortgage and car loan to pay. Then my ex-husband suddenly told me he had no money. When we divorced, the house went to him, but I was the primary borrower, and both of our names are still on the property because the transfer was never completed. In previous years, he transferred the mortgage payment to me on time every month, so I didn't push him to complete the transfer. But now he's lost his job, owes hundreds of thousands of yuan, and cannot even afford our child's school fees. I've already run out of money. I could no longer rely on my ex-husband. The situation now is that the house cannot be sold, and I can't keep making the payments. I've reached this point in life, and I truly don't know where to go from here. The signs of decline in China's northeast have shocked many people. A user filmed the streets of Fushun, Liaoning province. Actually, these stores are already dead. They just refuse to admit it. Look at every shop. They all have signs saying for rent, but no one is renting them. It's really miserable. The northeast has actually been struggling since last year, and things will become even worse in the second half of this year. Many physical store owners can no longer hold on. No matter how much the government promotes it these days, it won't help. As China's economy continues to deteriorate, businesses across sectors are struggling, and consumers are cutting back. The Chinese Communist Party has promoted the revitalization of the northeast for more than 20 years, but residents say it's just a slogan. They say the region's economy has now collapsed, with many areas becoming ghost towns, resembling the great northern wilderness of the past. Have you noticed? Fushun has become completely quiet. It really seems to be getting poorer and poorer. Restaurant businesses are also getting worse. If you open a Chinese restaurant, you might still survive because retired seniors often gather there. But if you open a hot pot restaurant or barbecue joint in Fushun, it's really difficult because there are fewer young people. I've also asked my friends from the northeast who went south to look for opportunities. Why did you have to leave? Why didn't you stay to help revive Fushun's economy? They told me when they worked in Fushun, one person earned just over 4,000 yuan a month. The two of them together made 7,000 to 8,000 yuan. Rent alone cost more than 2,000, and food and daily expenses cost another 2,000. It simply wasn't enough. A person from the northeast said he was tricked by a childhood friend into returning home, but ended up disappointed. Revitalize the northeast? How can I do that by myself? This is my village, a very ordinary small mountain village in the northeast. New streetlights were installed last year. Now the streets are brightly lit at night, but the people are gone. I walked around the village all morning and only saw a few elderly people. There are almost no people around 40 years old left in the village, and there are no children either. I remember when I was young, my family was poor, I couldn't wear new clothes and couldn't eat good food. But I felt life was so relaxed and happy back then. There was a school at the west end of the village. After school, the boys played hide-and-seek, while the girls jumped rope and played with sandbags. The streets were full of children. That feeling of happiness is impossible to describe. It was such a joyful time. He pointed towards several small yards in the distance and said one of them belonged to his childhood friend's family. Back then, when winter came, more than 10 children would gather in that house every day. It carried countless happy memories. Now that family has moved to Qingdao and can never return. The blogger said he suddenly understood something. The ultimate goal he had spent his entire life chasing was simply to live a happy life. But when he was very young, he had already experienced scenes that represented that kind of happiness. Now no one can return to those days. People his age in their early 40s are almost all gone from the village. They're living elsewhere and he doesn't know how they're doing. He called out to his fellow villagers. When I was away, you kept encouraging me to come back, saying we would revitalize the Northeast together. Now I'm back, but why have you guys left? My useless friends, how am I supposed to revitalize the Northeast by myself? The decline of the Northeast is often called the Northeast Phenomenon. It describes a series of problems in the region's economy, population, and social structure. These include difficulties transforming its heavy industrial economy, large-scale loss of talent, worsening demographics, and a sharp economic downturn. Some observers argue that this is mainly because the three Northeastern provinces implemented the CCP's economic system most thoroughly and that the current situation in the Northeast may become a preview of China's future. A next user posted a video with the caption, the Northeast economy has collapsed, leading the country into a major depression. 27 million people in Shen Yun, Harbin, and Changchun are no longer spending. Without consumption, there are no jobs. When someone dies, a household gets locked up. The three Northeastern provinces are disappearing and turning into the great Northern wilderness. Stop talking about revitalization. Ordinary people are fed up with the Communist Party's empty promises. The account collected complaints from people across different industries in the three provinces, along with their dissatisfaction toward authorities. In the video, a man identified as Mr. A said emotionally, Revitalize the Northeast? I'm so damn tired of hearing those words. Their policy mistakes have made the three Northeastern provinces pay the price. Just keep doing this until everything is ruined. A woman identified as Ms. B said that in an old residential area in Qiqi Har, almost all the houses across the street are empty with only a few families left in the entire community. If sold today, each apartment would be worth at most 40 to 50,000 yuan, and still no one would want them. Everyone has left. The Northeast truly can't keep people. Even if young people stay, they're unwilling to get married and have children because the economy is too bad. Ms. B said, I hope these people leave and find opportunities elsewhere. I've personally watched the Northeast go from prosperity to decline. In the future, there will be fewer and fewer people in the Northeast. Maybe decades from now, only this land will remain. Mr. C said, Shen Yun's real economy is completely finished. Actually, the entire Northeast is finished. Revitalize the Northeast? There are no people left. What can you use to revitalize it? Ms. D said that in the village where she lives, almost everyone has moved away. It looks somewhat like the old Great Northern wilderness. She said the Northeast has truly declined with a weak economy and few opportunities. Ms. D said helplessly, my relative's child worked in Shen Yun for two years, but has now also gone south to look for opportunities. He said, even the major cities in the Northeast are very depressed now. Jobs are hard to find, the birth rate is low, and people don't want to have children. Once people leave the Northeast, they don't want to come back. The Northeast is really in trouble. The slogan of revitalizing it has been repeated for so many years, but every year is worse than the last. There are fewer and fewer people. What will happen in the future? Mr. E described the situation. In the past, people would still go to cities like Shen Yun and Harbin to develop their careers. Now that no longer works. Everyone is heading south. In a few more years, these county-level cities in the Northeast will all become ghost towns. I'm not exaggerating. That's how serious it is. Ms. F said that the old Beishi commercial district in Shen Yun was once extremely prosperous, but now it's empty. All the shops display for rent signs. She said, there are fewer and fewer people in rural areas of the Northeast. This is the main street in our village. Look and see how many houses still have their lights on. The streetlights are bright, but there are very few people around. Mr. L said emotionally, why can't Changchun keep people? The fundamental reason is that there are too few job opportunities. Even when there are jobs, they don't pay much. Any decent job is almost impossible to get if you don't have connections or a background. Here, ability comes after personal connections. The problem of nepotism and favoritism is too serious. If you want to start a business or enter emerging industries, the supporting supply chains are missing. In traditional industries, whoever works in them suffers losses. This is a third-tier city with second-tier consumption costs. If you live here and you don't have a foundation or connections at the top and you don't know people in various industries, getting anything done is extremely difficult. That's the Northeast. According to the latest statistics, Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning have the three lowest birth rates in China. Their divorce rates and death rates are among the highest. Several elderly residents said, for every 30 people who die, only three are born. It's not just an aging population. Young people have all left. When one person dies, one household gets locked up. The children are no longer at home, so the house is left empty. The three Northeastern provinces collectively lost more than 4 million residents between 2021 and 2025. Their combined permanent population has fallen below 100 million. Compared with the population peak in 2010, the total population of the three provinces has decreased by about 14.5 million over the past 15 years. In terms of net population outflow, Heilongjiang has remained in a state of population loss. In 2024, it recorded a net population outflow of 138,000 people. In 2025, authorities did not release the relevant data. During the same period, Heilongjiang had the lowest birth rate in China, followed by Jilin and Liaoning, further accelerating natural population decline. In terms of migration, large numbers of people from the Northeast have moved to more economically developed regions. Census data shows that the main destinations for people leaving the Northeast include Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangdong province. Analysts say the Northeast has become one of the regions experiencing the most significant population loss. The term Northeastification has become an online expression used to describe population decline. The continued outflow of people from the Northeast is rooted in the region's industries being unable to provide enough jobs, while local incomes are not competitive enough to keep residents from leaving. Under the current conditions, the overall population decline is unlikely to be reversed in the short term.