Why do Shandong people go to the cold land instead of choosing the richer south when they go to the Kanto?

The main reason is that there was a lot of land in the northeast at that time, but the south was basically saturated. And Shandong is closer to the northeast. Land is scarce in the south. Shandong is Jiangsu to the south, Zhejiang to the south and Fujian to the south. Jiangsu has a lot of cultivated land and fertile land, but Jiangsu is densely populated, and the allocated land is finished, and the reclaimed wasteland is finished, leaving no extra land for the villagers in Shandong. However, Zhejiang and Fujian are mountainous, and cultivated land is extremely scarce, and it is even more impossible to have extra land.

In modern times, many people thought that Northeast China was a province, but it had not been integrated at that time. Geographically, Northeast China includes Liaohe River Basin and Wusuli River Basin (Heilongjiang, Wusuli River and Songhua River). As early as the Shang Dynasty, the Liaohe River Basin was brought into the sphere of influence of the Central Plains Dynasty. By the Warring States period, the Liaohe River Basin belonged to the territory of Yan State. Later, in addition to the Koguryo dynasty, the Liaohe river basin was closely related to the Central Plains dynasty, and even the Manchu dynasty could replace the Ming dynasty, to a certain extent, due to the contribution of the Liaohe river basin.

At that time, Shandong people who came to Guandong were basically farmers, mainly for the land. Shandong has always taken agriculture as the main development direction. If they move, it is also for the land. At that time, there were not many wasteland in China, except Tibet and Xinjiang, only the northeast. Northeast China was the land of Longxing in Qing Dynasty, and it was the retreat left by Manchu people. Han immigrants are prohibited here.

The time for Shandong people to go to the northeast is much shorter than that for the south. Shandong people go to the northeast, basically by boat. As long as you board the ship from the coast of Shandong, you can reach the ports along the coast of Liaoning in a day or two, which is very convenient. On the contrary, from Shandong to Jiangsu and Zhejiang, you must take land. At that time, there was no railway, and the north-south width of Jiangsu Province alone was close to 500 kilometers. In ancient times, it was not easy for married people with children to walk 500 kilometers by land.