The “Life in Venice” housing project, a multibillion-dollar replica of the Italian city on the Chinese coast, remains quiet. Most of the tens of thousands of houses are hollow shells of concrete and alabaster.
But in recent years this remote, partially abandoned complex has attracted unexpected new residents, such as Sasa Chen, a washed-up young Chinese woman who until recently worked a high-earning finance job in Shanghai, China’s bustling commercial hub.
Objection?
Chen pays just RMB 1,200, or $168, a month for his fake Venice apartment in China’s eastern Jiangsu province. It’s so cheap that Chen is allowed to retire at 28.
Experts say Chen is part of a broader trend across China in which a growing number of young people are migrating to small towns and cities, taking advantage of cheap opportunities. real estate prices It has declined since the Covid outbreak.
This is a complete reversal from previous generations that valued upward mobility. In recent years, China’s rising middle class has flocked to booming megacities to pursue once-plentiful jobs and dreams As the country goes from rags to riches. But as the once-hot economy has cooled, expectations have risen, opportunities have diminished and competition has toughened.
Most large Chinese companies, especially high-paying tech firms, require a 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday work schedule; it’s a grueling lifestyle popularly known as the 996 culture. Under intense pressure, some young professionals gave up completely and joined a resistance movement called “”. lie flat ” – shunning careers and capitalism for the sake of a “life of few desires.”
Some are redefining their dreams to focus on rest and relaxation, as some young adults in the West are doing under what they call FIRE, “Financial Independence, Early Retirement.”
In China, this is much more achievable because the cost of living in some places can be very low compared to prices in the West.
House prices in the huge “Life in Venice” project, The downturn in the Chinese real estate market a few years agoand a lunch of noodles or rice costs under three dollars at neighborhood restaurants.
Affordable prices have benefited young people like Chen who want to live in remote but affordable housing now available across the country. Chen describes it as the perfect life: sea views, fresh air and cheap rent.
“I have all the time in the world and the freedom to do what I want,” Chen said. “I’m living the life I want.”
“Life in Venice” was envisioned in the early 2010s as a weekend resort near Shanghai offering luxurious yet peaceful seaside living to wealthy residents.
But demand for the massive complex’s 46,000 units has waned following the implosion of China’s debt-fuelled real estate market. Developer, real estate giant Evergrande goes bankrupt in 2024.
Today this area is a ghost town consisting of empty shells of many villas. Less than one in five apartments is occupied. Abandoned boats roll down the ruined pier, and “For Sale” signs and empty storefronts line the streets. But many residents have moved in, some fishing in the site’s calm waters.
Chen worked in a flashy high-rise in Shanghai for a major financial company, earning up to 700,000 yuan ($98,480) a year. But he didn’t like the idea of working at all. Three years later, he began making plans to escape the drudgery of China’s white-collar workforce.
His plan was to save money and find a place to live with low enough rent to live off the return on his investments.
Last year, his dream came true: Chen saved 2 million yuan ($290,000) and found a spacious apartment in “Life in Venice.” He calculates that with such low rent he could live there for the rest of his life without ever having to work again.
Although “Life in Venice” doesn’t have a branch of her favorite sour soup hot pot restaurant, door-to-door delivery, or proximity to major hospitals, her new home has plenty of conveniences like a grocery store and eateries.
Chen dreaded the grind of his nine-to-six job, saying it “felt like I was walking to my own death.” She now wakes up at 10 a.m. every day and fills her days with cooking, relaxing and long walks on the beach.
“I never believed that work was the meaning of life,” Chen said. “My ideal living situation is not to work and stay in places I like.”
Like Chen, many young Chinese have also left big cities.
While there is no available data on how many people have left the Chinese workforce in recent years, figures show that from 2019 to 2024, Beijing lost 1.6 million people in their twenties and early thirties (around the total population of Philadelphia), according to China’s capital statistics office.
“People are giving up on this competition, this very clear, linear, ascending career path,” said Xiang Biao, director of the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology in Germany. “This is a broader trend.”
China’s economy has cooled in recent years Only 5% growth in 2025 — still higher than the United States 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 people have difficulty finding jobs. As of December, 16.5% of young people aged 16-24 who were not in school were unemployed.
Some, like 29-year-old Ban Zhao, reject the corporate offer rat race completely.
Last summer, Ban moved from a bustling trading city on China’s east coast to a small town in China’s southwestern Yunnan province. Located in a lush valley, the town is famous for its clean air and healing hot springs. There, for just 800 yuan ($110) a month, Ban rents a three-bedroom apartment and converts one of the apartments into a yoga studio.
She and her boyfriend work less than 20 hours a week and teach online yoga classes to make ends meet. The rest of the time, she wanders around her scenic neighborhood surrounded by trees and flowers and generally enjoys the sunshine the area is known for.
“I can do what I want, I can’t do what I don’t want,” Ban said. “I live in paradise.”
Some are flocking to places like Hegang, a cold and remote coal-mining town in China’s northeast famous for its surprisingly cheap housing prices. As the springs dried up and the mines closed, young people left and Hegang became a city with more houses than people.
Apartments here are now cheaper than cars, making sales easier for real estate agent Yang Xuewei.
Yang has sold more than 100 affordable apartments to customers across the country and even some strangers who contacted Yang after watching his online virtual tours. A one-bedroom apartment can be purchased for $3,000, and a large four-bedroom apartment can be purchased for $13,000.
“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 living costs and fewer job opportunities in big cities are pushing people to move to cheaper places.
“This is very natural,” Chen said. “Young people are facing reality and thinking hard about their future.”
