To advance urbanization and integrate farmers into urban life, China's Heilongjiang and Henan provinces have introduced some substantial new policies on the household registration system, abolishing the distinction between farmers and city dwellers with a unified resident household system.

According to the new policies, farmers can set up a resident household register to replace their rural household register of their own free will, enabling them to enjoy equal resident rights with urban residents in a gradual process. Meanwhile, farmers still have their contractual rights of land, rural homestead-land-use rights and dividend rights of collective earnings, the policies stressed.

"The most important thing is to diminish the difference in social insurance and public service between rural and urban areas. The efforts may involve the participation of a dozen departments to make a real change, including the departments of education, medical care, social insurance and employment," said Zhang Yunhua, research office director of the Research Department of Rural Economy of the Development Research Center of the State Council (DRC).