Abstract: This article examines manual laborers ( kugong), who moved from Zhili and Shandong to the Northeast during the reign of the Emperor of Xuantong. The essay explains the kugong's choices of area and occupation economically, by comparing the discrepancies of earnings between the areas they left and the areas where they resettled. It also analyzes the attitudes of the Chinese and Russian governments toward this migration. Kugong did accumulate some economic assets, which not only led to Russian antipathy but stimulated measures to drive the Chinese out. At the same time, local Chinese officials and newspapers regarded kugong as refugees and refused to allow them to reclaim land or establish official residency. From the perspective of the history of migration to the Northeast, the Xuantong Reign was the eve of Chinese and Russian governments changing their attitudes towards kugong and it also represented an economic turning point．