Heading home

A growing number of young Chinese are leaving major metropolises to return to the smaller cities where they grew up. Zhang Zefeng reports.

Six years ago, Yao Huifeng made a decision many still consider outrageous.

The farm boy from an impoverished village in Jiangxi province spent his childhood studying hard to get into college and never return.

But the Southwest Forestry University graduate quit his high-paying job as a medical sales manager in Shenzhen, one of the country's most popular metropolises, to return home to grow organic rice.

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"I was stressed and unhappy in the city," the 36-year-old says.

"I worked for money rather than goals. Recent years' food scandals made me re-evaluate the necessity of living in a big city."

Yao's parents were devastated.

"My mother cried every day, and my father avoided me," Yao recalls. "They believed I destroyed the only ray of their hopes."

Yao married, and the couple had a son.

His rice production morphed from a 2-hectare trial field to a community-supported agriculture program in which 70 families tend 66 hectares of paddies.

"I feel calm when I'm in the paddies," he says. "I don't usually feel so relaxed in big cities."

Chinese colleges produced around 6.6 million graduates in 2011, a rise of 300,000 over 2010. The number will likely reach nearly 8 million in 2017, the Ministry of Education estimates.

A growing number are returning to their hometowns rather than grappling with the stresses of urban life, according to a series of annual reports on youth-employment stress by Beijing Normal University doctor of psychology Xiong Hanzhong.

"Problems like skyrocketing housing prices, high living costs, traffic congestion and air pollution dissuade the young from staying in metropolises," says Xiong, the founder of the Beijing Youth Stress Management Service Center.

"Many youth realize they don't have to stay in big cities to enjoy bright futures. The internet can bridge the information gap with smaller places and make the impossible possible."

New migration

The United Nations' youth report points to positives resulting from youth returning to less-developed places of birth. It eases excess labor in urban areas and increases human capital in smaller cities.

Take Ma Junhe. The 36-year-old returned to Gansu province's Minqin county in 2006, after media reported on desertification. Ma decided to devote himself to beating back the sand.

"I have to do something because my hometown could become the next Lop Nor desert," Ma says.

"I don't want to be homeless."

The internet compensated for his total lack of experience in countering desertification.

He and villagers plant saxaul, a shrub that holds back the desert, and grow cistanche, aka "desert ginseng".

Fresh cistanche sells for 60 yuan ($8.70) to 120 yuan per kilogram and requires little irrigation compared with crops like corn. It improves the environment and farmers' incomes.

Ma's project has transformed over 1,300 hectares of sand into farmland. He also uses e-commerce platforms to sell local farm products to cities.

Technological advancement also diversifies the means by which Ma's group shares their work with the public.

"We used to use websites to promote our project," he says. "Now we use live-streaming platforms and may adopt virtual reality."

Ma returned home without knowing how to fight desertification. But many young people, such as Beijing Normal University graduate Lin Lusheng, bring expertise and networks.

The 35-year-old returned to Fujian province's Neilong village to build a cultural space for local students and villagers in the traditional Hakka-style earthen tulou buildings that were listed as a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage in 2008.

He'd run two NGOs in Beijing.

"Tulou are irreplaceable," Lin says. "It's fulfilling to work as an entrepreneur to preserve the heritage of a place where you grew up."

Lin's architect friends helped him with renovations. Friends from the University of Macao and New York University Shanghai sent students to work as volunteers and teachers.

The abundant social capital generated by the community cut costs and enhanced efficiency.

His vision inspired local people, including youth, women and retired teachers, to volunteer.

He's also supported by childhood schoolmates who now work in different professions and government branches. Lin's project offers Fujian's Xiamen University's architecture students a valuable learning platform.

In return, they help Lin solve construction and design problems.

"Unlike commerce-based ventures that can be affected by such factors as technology and fan base, the success of a social enterprise can largely be decided by the social capital it receives," says Lin Hong, secretary-general of the Beijing-based Ginkgo Foundation.

"Compared with the big cities, young entrepreneurs are more likely to unite the local community to create abundant social capital."

Both sides

Still, there are downsides to returning to smaller cities.

Nong Shijie, from the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region's capital, Nanning, obtained a Beijing hukou (household registration) and worked as a civil servant in Beijing after graduating from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

"I was free," he says. "I enjoyed living alone and hanging out with friends."

But the 33-year-old couldn't afford a decent apartment in the nation's capital.

The only child returned home to care for his aging parents.

"At a certain age, you have to prioritize and give up certain things," he says.

He now works as a researcher in the local government. His salary has shrunk, and it has taken him longer than expected to make new friends.

Nong misses the excitement of the big city, especially world-class cultural activities.

He feels less free.

"My parents gradually kidnapped my life," he says. "Even though we don't live under the same roof, they influence what I eat and how my apartment looks."

Yet there are upsides, too, he says.

He attends down-to-earth cultural events and enjoys the ethnic customs.

The slower lifestyle and picturesque landscapes have enticed him to bike throughout the region.

"I thought I knew Guangxi," he says. "I was wrong. The world is huge."

Renmin University of China sociologist Zhou Xiaozheng points out different people react differently to relocating cities and returning home.

"Everybody is different," he says.

It's a difficult decision. Returning home offers certain positives but also positive uncertainties.

Xiong warns it requires serious consideration, and people shouldn't blindly follow successful returnees.

"Social connections, skills and knowledge acquired in big cities can be important resources to bring home," he says.

"After returning, one should retain connections with the metropolis."

Contact the writer at zhangzefeng@chinadaily.com.cn