The Guangzhou Municipal Government recently released plans to relax its restrictions on applications for the permanent residential permit, or hukou.

The new approach applies to hukou applications for certain groups including college students, retired soldiers and special front-line workers in the fields of education, environmental sanitation, public security and fire departments, healthcare and elder-care institutions.

For high-level, innovative or urgently-needed talents, or for technicians and entrepreneurs, age restrictions will be relaxed. 

The plans include a special points system which allows people who have worked and lived in Guangzhou for years to obtain a permanent residential permit, as well as a system through which special talents can get hukous with certain privileges attached.