Thousands of Beipiao, people living and working in Beijing without the residency permit, or hukou, are turning to desperate measures to try and secure one. The hukou system was created to control population migration, and living without one restricts access to essential services such as education, healthcare and social welfare.

With only 180,000 non local residents gaining a Beijing hukou out of an estimated 8 million people who migrated to the city last year, an extremely lucrative black market has sprung up, and the costs are rising; the going rate for a black market hukou for the average graduate student is around 450,000 RMB.

This year, Beijing authorities cracked down on a gang that earned over 3 million RMB illegally obtaining hukous. Many of these groups and agents have contacts with state owned agencies that have a hukou quota for their employees.

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Keywords: Beijing Hukou Black Market