US EditionYoung Chinese Move to Small Cities for Affordable Housing and Lower Work Pressure
Young Chinese are relocating to small towns and abandoned developments for affordable housing and to escape high-pressure work culture, with 16.5% youth unemployment reported in 2025.
- In recent years, young Chinese have been relocating to small towns and abandoned developments; Sasa Chen, age 28, pays just 1,200 RMB monthly at Life in Venice.
- After China’s debt‑fueled property bubble popped, large developments like Life in Venice were left partly abandoned and largely unsold, with Evergrande declaring bankruptcy in 2024.
- Sales pitches and online tours have helped move units that are now often `cheaper than cars`; realtor Yang Xuewei sold more than 100 bargain apartments nationwide, with one-bedroom homes at $3,000 and four-bedrooms at $13,000 in Hegang, northeastern coal-mining city.
- From 2019 to 2024, Beijing lost 1.6 million people in their twenties and early thirties, while China’s economy grew just 5% in 2025 as 16.5% of 16‑24 year‑olds not in school were unemployed.
- Shunning high-pressure careers, some young people have embraced the `lying flat` movement or FIRE-like early retirement, working under 20 hours weekly to escape the 996 culture .
16 Articles
16 Articles
Meet a burned out 28-year-old who pays $168 a month in China's faux Venice to retire early from her Shanghai finance gig
Experts say a growing number of young people across China are migrating to small towns and cities, taking advantage of cheap real estate prices.
As China’s economy slows, some young people are snapping up cheap apartments to ‘retire’ early
The “Life in Venice” housing development, a multibillion-dollar replica of the Italian city on the Chinese coast, stands silent. Many of the tens of thousands of homes are hollow husks of concrete and alabaster. But in recent years the remote, partially abandoned complex has drawn unlikely new residents like Sasa Chen, a burned-out young Chinese woman who until recently worked a high-earning finance job in Shanghai, China’s bustling commerce hub…
Associated Press News
As China's economy slows, some young people are snapping up cheap apartments to 'retire' early
As China’s property market craters and youth unemployment rises, burned-out young professionals are fleeing megacities for ultracheap housing in remote towns.
Photos show China’s low-cost lifestyle in vast, semiabandoned housing complexes - Regional Media News
After China's debt-fueled real estate bubble popped, vast housing developments across the country were left partially abandoned - including "Life in Venice," a sprawling residential complex perched on China's east coast. Just an hour and a half drive away from China's bustling commercial hub of Shanghai, "Life in Venice" was inspired by the famed Italian city, featuring European style sculptures and buildings connected by canals and bridges. It …
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