Example of China’s hukou — or actually, school district houses (中国学区房) — in China. But it gets a bit complicated.

Friend is a single parent, living in a house registered in his parent’s name (his parents live with him). His son goes to a primary school near that house. Let’s call it House A. Then he bought a house as an investment (let’s call it House B), in his own name, totally on the other side of the city. When his son went to primary school, he could go to a school in the area of House A (registered in friend’s parent’s name). That was allowed then. But now the rules have changed. It must be near House B now (his own name). So for middle school (初中), he had to either let his son move to a school on the other side of the city, or get House A on his name. Problem, there was still 120K USD left on the mortgage, and only when it’s paid off, the registration be changed. School registration deadline; end of April. The whole family put money together, with friends — and somehow 120K USD was collected in about 6 weeks. Extremely stressful and now he can start to pay off those loans.

(Just another proof that while in the Netherlands, the government helps with a lot of social security benefits, in China, it’s usually family that helps out and provides a financial safety net.)