Yaxi in eastern China is providing an ideal place for people fed up with the pressure and anxiety of modern urban life.
With a population 22,000, Yaxi is the first designated "slow city" in China by Cittaslow. There are six local administrative villages located along both sides of the 48km scenic belt, presenting the ideological golden ratio of “30 percent mountains, 20 percent waters, and 50 percent lands”. It’s a famous place for appreciating canola flowers. Each spring, there is a Canola Flower Festival.
As for Yaxi, sustainability is not just a buzzword, but a propaganda priority. There are no industrial enterprises in the village. Farmers make their living mainly on ecological agriculture and tourism. Over the years, more and more local residents even including young college graduates are returning to their rural home to set up an agro-tourism business that includes hotels and restaurants. Farmers are able to supplement their income by operating small restaurants that serve simple country food. The rise of tourism has made great changes in the lives of local people.
Slow town of course, does not mean no development but a slower-pace lifestyle compared to urban life. To accelerate its ecological economy growth, the local government resolutely kicks off polluted projects with low additional value but high energy consumption during the process of investment.
Like a postcard from China's pre-industrial past, Yaxi is unquestionably beautiful. The hillsides are green with bamboo forests, tea plantations and orchards; the only people in sight are farmers with wooden baskets slung over their backs and two-pronged wooden poles to the earth. In recent years, local-featured tourism is gaining more and more popularity. In the future, Gaochun will further utilize the profound ecological and cultural resources, and develop a slow town with concept of integration in farming experience, ecological recreation, cultural creativity and health care.
