Shared farm

A startup company called Yimadangxian built a shared farm in the Zhejiang village of Chengyang in late 2020. This model combines online e-commerce services and offline activities.

Customers can place tailor-made orders from the farms. The farms also lend themselves to activities that attract urban families looking for a place to spend a weekend or national holidays.

More than 100 villagers have taken jobs at the shared farm.

Yu Zhenfei, a craftsman who sold goods made with bamboo strips, became a craftsmanship tutor, teaching visitors the basic techniques of making goods with bamboo strips.

During the May Day holiday in 2021, the farm welcomed a record 6,000 visitors on May 3. Combined sales revenue at the restaurants, souvenir shops and local specialty stores in Chengyang topped 280,000 yuan ($44,044) on that day.

Shared farms are emerging around suburban areas. Urban residents can rent a piece of land and grow their own vegetables, their children can experience picking fruit and vegetables and feeding animals and farmers can take care of the rented land and turn into workshop tutors, which forms a win-win situation.