The Awakening of Life

A rural county’s cultural pivot

It has been reported by Huxiu, citing a transcript published by the Zhigang Think Tank (智纲智库), that Wengyuan County (翁源县) in northern Guangdong has pushed a strategic shift in its cultural‑tourism playbook: from “selling scenery” to “selling life.” The push was framed at a March 2026 forum where advisory Wang Zhigang (王志纲) urged the county to repackage the visitor experience as long‑term, lived engagement rather than one‑off sightseeing. Why the change? Local officials want deeper, year‑round economic ties to visitors and richer cultural content — not just picture‑postcard views.

Farm, faith and communal services at Donghua Temple

Central to the plan is Donghua Chan Temple (东华禅寺). It has been reported that Venerable Wan Xing (万行法师) described the temple’s model as “farm‑chan” (农禅结合): a self‑sustaining operation built on roughly 1,000 mu of camellia‑oil plantations, 500 mu of tea, and 500 mu of cropland, with produce and donations underwriting free lodging and day‑use for visitors. Reportedly the site has grown from a single monk in 2000 to about 130 today and now encompasses vegetable gardens, tea gardens and cultural facilities the temple calls the “three gardens, six halls” — including a library, national‑medicine clinic and museum. It has also been reported that the temple’s medical offering operates as a legally registered platform with credentialed practitioners, and that local government has formally allocated surrounding lands to the temple for conservation and management.

Healing, social capital and the question of modernity

The conversation also touched on social trends: Wan reportedly told listeners that many visitors find respite from anxiety and burnout at the temple, and that depressive symptoms often remit with time in a regulated, contemplative environment — an observation he linked to broader shifts in Chinese lifestyles as material needs are increasingly met. It has been reported that Wan noted depression appears more commonly among women and wealthier people, a contested claim presented as local observation rather than peer‑reviewed evidence. This model sits squarely within Beijing’s broader emphasis on rural revitalization (乡村振兴) and cultural heritage tourism, offering soft‑power benefits as well as local income. But tensions remain. Will such sites cut themselves off from modern tools like smartphones and AI to preserve a contemplative atmosphere — or can tradition and technology be woven together? That, it seems, is the next question for China’s “selling life” experiment.