MONITORING (SW) – On a little island bordering China’s southern city of Foshan, Carson Chen has built a “temporary refuge” for young people like himself who are exhausted from urban life.
“I lived and worked under high pressure in various big cities for a long time,” says the 29-year-old entrepreneur. Mr. Chen says he started travelling after quitting his job and encountered the island, named Ping Sha, by accident.
“The island is like a hidden gem from the world, only accessible by ferry,” he says.
The phrase “youth nursing home” has a big following on China’s Instagram-like app Red — users have viewed the term nearly 10 million times.
Hundreds of such residences, usually situated in the countryside or villages, have emerged across China.
Most residents of his youth nursing home are short-term, ranging from a few days to a couple of months, Mr Chen says.
In a survey of more than 2,000 youths by the state media Youth Daily last year, more than 70 per cent said the countryside was more attractive than cities.
The primary reasons were the slower pace of living, lower stress because of the less competitive lifestyle and cheaper living costs.
In the first quarter of 2024, a total of about 784 million tourists visited rural areas in China, more than in the corresponding periods of recent years, according to Statista.
