Long-Stay and Slow Travel

A growing number of Chinese travelers are choosing extended stays of weeks or months in scenic cities like Chongqing, Dali, Chengdu, Lijiang, and Xiamen, blending remote work with leisure in a 'from travel to living' (从旅行到生活) approach that reflects fundamental shifts in how young Chinese relate to work, place, and quality of life. This slow travel trend is driven by a desire for deeper cultural immersion and rejection of the frenetic pace of first-tier city life — participants rent apartments, shop at local markets, learn regional cooking, and build relationships with local communities rather than rushing between tourist attractions. Dali in Yunnan province has become the epicenter of this movement, with thousands of young professionals from Beijing and Shanghai relocating semi-permanently to work remotely from cafes overlooking Erhai Lake, forming creative communities of writers, designers, and entrepreneurs. Chongqing's affordable cost of living and vibrant street culture attract a different demographic of digital nomads who stream their daily exploration of the city's vertiginous hillside neighborhoods. Co-living spaces, month-long rental services on platforms like Ziroom and Airbnb, and coworking cafes cater specifically to this digital nomad demographic. The concept of '数字游民' (digital nomad) has entered mainstream Chinese vocabulary, with dedicated Xiaohongshu communities sharing city-by-city guides rating Wi-Fi quality, cafe atmosphere, and monthly living costs. What drives this trend is the post-pandemic normalization of remote work, disillusionment with '996' work culture (9 AM to 9 PM, 6 days a week), and a generational shift toward valuing life experience over career advancement. For urban planners and economic development officials, China's slow travel movement matters because it demonstrates how smaller cities can attract talent and economic activity by offering quality of life rather than career opportunities, potentially alleviating China's severe geographic concentration of economic resources.