Sowing the seeds of shared farming

While most residents stayed warm in their heated apartments as Beijing braced for its heaviest snowfall in mid-December, Dai Wanli and her husband took their 8-year-old son to a shared vegetable garden in the Changping district.

About an hour drive from their house in the capital, the family tends to a 1,000-square-meter greenhouse and surrounding plots in the northern suburb, practicing hobby farming on weekends.

Dai, a human resources manager, and her husband, who works in media, knelt in the soil, harvesting celery, radishes and broccoli. Their son followed, carrying a small basket and inspecting seedlings.

"During the week, we sit in offices, dealing with complex and intangible problems," Dai said. "Despite the physically tiring work, we feel relaxed and peaceful in the green and quiet countryside."

Dai's family is part of China's growing trend of "weekend farmers". Driven by the pursuit of better-quality food, a desire to escape work pressures, and nostalgia for rural life, urban residents are flocking to shared farms on the city's outskirts for a temporary retreat.

With a high demand for healthier foods, the couple decided to invest in a shared farm a few years ago. They started with two strips of land at a commercial farm in Daxing, south of Beijing, with an annual rent of about 16,000 yuan ($2,300).