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LONDON: All generations are now embracing hermit lifestyles to escape the pressures of modern life.

In a misty forest on a “deserted and wild” mountain in China, 27-year-old Meimei Tu and her partner built a cottage to fulfil a dream.

“We did everything: building the roof, mixing the concrete and planting a lawn,” Ms Tu says.

“I love the mountains so much, and I like to stay in solitude and immerse myself in my own world.”

Ms Tu is among a growing number of young people in China experimenting with yin ju, or “hermit” living, an ancient traditional Chinese philosophy that often involves embracing a simpler life in nature.

Young people are choosing to live in remote areas to distance themselves from intense pressures such as limited job opportunities, long work hours and high housing prices.

Ms Tu’s decision to lead a new life came after six years working in the real estate industry, when she realised she wasn’t living the life she wanted.

“Regardless of age, everyone is free to seek what they really want,” she says.

Ms Tu says she felt “inhibited living in a small room in the city” and did not want to follow the “pre-determined life path that many Chinese parents tend to set out for their children”.

The COVID-19 pandemic and China’s lengthy lockdowns created an opportunity to make her mountain-living dream to reality.

Ms Tu came across some land “by chance” last year when she was walking in the mountains, near China’s south-western city of Chengdu, and decided to rent it from local residents.

“The restrictions here were not so strict during the lockdowns as there weren’t many people living here, so we were able to focus on building our cottage undisturbed,” she says.

Trends similar to hermit living, such as the lying flat movement and the run philosophy, have gained popularity in China in recent years as the country’s youth have sought alternative lifestyle options with less anxiety and more freedom.

References to hermit living have also been increasing on Chinese social media, with some influencers posting hermit lifestyle video blogs that have been viewed billions of times.

One such influencer is Ziqi Li, a famous Chinese video blogger and entrepreneur who is known for her videos on idyllic agricultural life in China’s rural areas.
YouTube Ziqi Li, a famous Chinese video blogger and entrepreneur, often posts about rural living.

A group called yin ju (hermit living) on Baidu Tieba, a Chinese online forum hosted by the search engine Baidu, now has more than 1 million followers, and has become a place for people to share and discuss the most ideal places for hermit living in China.

Online groups and trending hashtags related to hermit living have also emerged on other Chinese social media platforms including Douban, Weibo and Xiaohongshu.

The trend follows China’s President Xi Jinping recently encouraging young people to move to the countryside and uphold the spirit of “eating bitterness”, a term that means to put up with hardships.

“In one’s youth times, choosing to eat bitterness is to choose rewards,” Mr Xi said in a state media article in May.

Shirley Chan, an associate professor specialising in Chinese studies at Macquarie University, says his comment reflects the Chinese government’s effort to “revive and improve the condition of rural areas” against the backdrop of overdevelopment in big cities.

“For many years, these [rural and remote] areas have been neglected as many young people left the countryside and went to the cities to find jobs,” she says.

While the government’s message is a part of a broader scheme for the nation’s development, it is “quite different” to young people’s choices to move to remote areas, which are likely influenced by more personal motivations, Dr Chan says.

“This [hermit living] can be a choice of freedom for some people,” she says.

Dr Chan says the pandemic led some young people to rethink the importance of “reconnecting with nature” and living a “self-sufficient lifestyle”, while avoiding social problems.

Hermit living refers to a traditional philosophy of life that embraces simplicity and harmony with nature, but Dr Chan says it’s also about upholding individual ethical standards in Chinese culture.

While it commonly takes the form of living in a remote area individually or as a community, she says hermit living is not restrained by the physical location as long as one upholds the philosophy of it.

There is a long tradition of hermit living in China.

“Educated scholars or retired officials have chosen to live as a hermit to escape social expectations or political turmoil during their time,” Dr Chan says.

The verses and poems of these scholars are well known by many Chinese people.

One example is the renowned hermit poet Tao Yuanming, who was born during the political chaos at the end of the Eastern Jin dynasty and wrote many poems on the virtue of reclusion.

A Buddhist temple on a mountain near China’s southern city Heyuan became Shucen Liu’s refuge at the start of this year.

China’s hermit life culture is closely linked with various religious practices, such as Buddhism and Taoism, which have similar philosophies on living a simple life in harmony with nature.

Ms Liu says something that led her to the Buddhist retreat was “political depression” over the government’s strict pandemic policies throughout 2022.

“I was very disappointed at China’s political system,” the 24-year-old says.

“The news and public opinion environment was terrible, my WeChat account was banned for a week for participating in protests sparked by the Urumqi fire.”

At the end of 2022, protests erupted across China over pandemic restrictions, after a deadly fire in Xinjiang’s capital Urumqi killed 10 people.

Protesters believed those who died could not escape the burning building because it was partly locked down.

Ms Liu says living in the remote mountain and drawing wisdom from Buddhism has helped her manage negative emotions.

Mobile phones are not allowed in the temples, so there is “less exposure to external information” which has brought Ms Liu a sense of “inner peace”.

“I wake up at 4:30am, meditate, read the scriptures, sweep the floor, wash the dishes, go to bed at 8:30pm,” she says.

“There are no political disturbances. When it’s not in your face, the anger faded away.”

In the long term, Ms Liu says she plans to switch between modern and hermit lifestyles.

“It (living remotely) is always going to be a way for me to adjust … When I am feeling suffocated in the cities, I will switch to a different system of living,” she says.

There has been a recent surge in the number of young people visiting temples in China, which was once a realm frequented by the older generations.

Temple visits are up 310 per cent so far this year compared to the same period in 2022, according to travel-booking platform Trip.com.

The website said roughly half of those visitors were born after 1990, but did not give overall visitor numbers or figures for the years before the pandemic.

When Aimin Tian, a former musician, built his cottage in a remote valley in China’s southern province of Hunan, he did not expect it would attract so much attention.

The valley is situated deep into the mountain ranges, with no public transportation access or electricity.

Mr Tian says he originally chose the location for his home to “intentionally keep a distance from the outside world”.

But gradually Mr Tian’s residence attracted outside attention through word of mouth.

It became “a place that everyone can go to”, Mr Tian says.

“Most of the young people who come here are free and romantic.”

More than 80 per cent of people who stay are youth, Mr Tian says.

Many young people are sent to his cottage by their parents, and they include university students who weren’t able to travel and study abroad during the pandemic.

Mr Tian says young people growing up in the cities are now “seeking to exercise themselves through manual work such as farming” and the land has provided an opportunity for them to do that.

“There is countless work to do in the mountain. Basically, farm when it’s sunny, read when it’s rainy,” he says.

“There is always something to gain when one walks into the wilderness … it teaches you to solve the problems through very grounded ways.

“Building up the valley is like building a dream in the wilderness … everything eventually gives way for a process of inward exploration.

“I think yin ju is not an escape or avoidance, it has a more positive connotation.”

Rather than a romantic utopia, Ms Tu says living in the mountains always requires a “gift from nature” and it comes with many practical difficulties.

Water shortage is one of the problems.

Relying on a thin pipe that draws water from the top of the mountain, Ms Tu says drought or a blockage often leaves her cottage without water.

“We need to go into the mountain ranges to find water every two or three days and purify it for drinking,” she says.

“When there is drought, we can only purchase bottled water.

“Social media often only pictures the beautiful side of mountain living. I think many young people may not be prepared for these difficulties.”

Ms Tu says the cost of living in the mountain can be minimal if one is able to “plant their own vegetables and raise their own poultry”.

Rural land rent is cheaper than renting in the cities, although it takes “time and a reasonable amount of economic support” to build a cottage, she adds.

Ms Tu says her cottage is also open to outside visitors by reservation for tea over the weekend, which provides an extra source of income.

She currently still spends some time in the city and works as a bar singer, but she intends to completely move to the mountain cottage in the near future.

“I don’t have much material needs and I have a lot of spiritual needs. That’s why I moved into the mountain,” she says.

“There is a magical power in nature. You just feel everything is right and comfortable.”