The “Life in Venice” housing development, a multi-billion dollar replica of the Italian city on the Chinese coast, stands still. Many of the tens of thousands of houses have concrete and alabaster openings.
But in recent years the remote, somewhat abandoned area has drawn unlikely new residents like Sasa Chen, a young Chinese woman who until recently worked a lucrative job in Shanghai, China’s commercial hub.
The request?
Chen pays just 1200 yuan, or $168, a month for his apartment in Venice in eastern China’s Jiangsu province. Cheap enough to allow Chen to retire at the tender age of 28.
Experts say Chen is part of a broader trend that has seen large numbers of young people in China move to smaller towns and cities, taking advantage of cheap real estate prices that have fallen since the COVID-19 pandemic.
It’s a stark change from previous generations that valued upward mobility. Over the past decades, China’s rising middle class has flocked to the big cities to chase jobs and dreams, once more as the country went from rags to riches. But as the once-new economy has stabilized, expectations have increased, opportunities have decreased and competition has increased.
Many large Chinese companies, especially high-paying technology firms, require a work schedule of 9 am to 9 pm from Monday to Saturday, a strict lifestyle known as the 996 culture. Under intense pressure, some young professionals called it quits altogether and joined the opposition movement called “the flat lie” – rejecting jobs and capitalism for “a life without desire.”
Some are redefining their dreams to think about rest and relaxation, just like what some young people in the West are doing under what they call FIRE: “Financial Independence, Retire Early.”
It is mostly found in China because the cost of living in some places can be low compared to the prices in the West.
Home prices in the main “Life in Venice” development have increased by half since the start of China’s property market downturn a few years ago, and a lunch of noodles or a rice dish costs less than $3 in local restaurants.
Affordable prices have helped young people like Chen who want to live in remote but affordable places across the country. Chen describes it as the perfect lifestyle: ocean views, clean air, and cheap rent.
“I have all the time in the world, the freedom to do whatever I want,” Chen said. “I’m living the life I want.”
“Life in Venice” was envisioned in the early 2010s as a weekend resort for wealthy residents from nearby Shanghai, offering a luxurious but peaceful life by the sea.
But the demand for the larger 46 units of 46, collapsed after the Chinese market increased loans. The developer, real estate giant Evergrande, went bankrupt in 2024.
Today the site is a ghost town, with many villas just empty shells. Less than one in five apartments are occupied. Abandoned boats drifted from its rundown pier and “For Sale” signs and empty shops lined its streets. But the destruction of the natives has set in, some of them fishing in the calm waters of civilization.
Chen used to work in a glittering high-rise in Shanghai, making 700,000 yuan ($98,480) a year at a large financial institution. But he had never liked the idea of working. After three years, he began planning his escape from the drudgery of white Chinese workers.
His plan was to save money and find a place to live with a low rent so that he would be able to live on the money he had earned from his money.
Last year, his dream came true: Chen saved two million yuan ($290,000) and got a big house on “Life in Venice”. With such a low rent, he figures he can live there for the rest of his life without ever having to work again.
Although “Life in Venice” does not have a branch of his favorite soup hotpot restaurant, door-to-door delivery, or close to major hospitals, his new residence has many amenities such as grocery stores and restaurants.
Chen used to dread the grind of his nine-to-six job, which he said “felt like I was going to my death.” Now, he wakes up at 10 a.m. every day, filling his days with cooking, chilling, and long walks on the beach.
“I never believed that work is the meaning of life,” said Chen. “My ideal life is not to work and live in the places I love.”
Like Chen, thousands of young Chinese left the big cities.
Although there is no data available on how many workers have left China in recent years, statistics show that from 2019 to 2024, Beijing lost 1.6 million people in the 20s and early 30s – around the entire population of Philadelphia – according to China’s statistics office.
“People are leaving this competition, which is clear, linear, upward,” said Xiang Biao, director of the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology in Germany. “This is a huge event.”
China’s economy has stagnated in recent years, growing just 5% in 2025 – still higher than the US and other rich countries, but far from the double-digit growth the country has seen in recent decades.
As the economy slows down, young Chinese are struggling to find jobs. As of December, 16.5% of 16-24 year olds not in school were unemployed.
Others, like 29-year-old Ban Zhao, are rejecting the rat race altogether.
Last summer, Mr. Ban moved from a busy commercial city on China’s east coast to a small town in southwest China’s Yunnan. Enclosed in a green valley, the town is known for its fresh, clean air and healing hot springs. There, for just 800 yuan a month ($110) Ban rents a three-bedroom apartment, one of which he has converted into a yoga studio.
She and her boyfriend work less than 20 hours a week, offering yoga classes online for a living. The rest of the time, he walks around his beautiful neighborhood surrounded by trees and flowers, often enjoying the sunshine that the area is famous for.
“I can do whatever I want, not what I don’t want,” said Ban. “I live in heaven.”
Others are flocking to places like Hegang, a cold and remote coal-mining city in northeastern China famous for surprisingly cheap housing prices. As resources dried up and the mines closed, young people left, turning Hegang into a city with more houses than people.
Apartments are now cheaper than cars, making sales easier for realtor Yang Xuewei.
Yang has sold more than 100 affordable homes to buyers across the country — and even some foreigners contacted Yang after seeing her online tour. A one-bedroom house can be bought for $3,000, and $13,000 can buy a four-bedroom place.
“I don’t know about big cities, I’ve never lived in one,” Yang said. “I can only say that living in Hegang is easy.”
Chen Zhiwu, a finance professor at the University of Hong Kong, said high housing costs and limited job opportunities in big cities are driving people to cheaper places.
“It’s natural,” Chen said. “Young people are facing reality and thinking hard about their future.”
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