Perched up against the edge of a cliff in China's southwest Guizhou province is the bamboo shack 21-year-old "retiree" Liu Youwen built from scratch.
Three years ago, Liu left his rural hometown Xiaxixiang, Guizhou, for the city of Shantou in Guangdong, China's richest province, joining a decades-long nationwide migration of workers from the countryside that has fueled the country's enormous growth and created some of the world's largest megacities.
But as a junior high dropout, it was tough for Liu to find a job. He said he was turned down by many factories due to his lack of credentials, before eventually finding work as a car mechanic, then a construction worker, and finally at a clothing factory.
Disillusioned by the grind of city life, at the end of 2022 he decided to call it quits and return to the rolling hills and rivers of Guizhou. Liu's parents and older brother protested the move – but he wanted a "simple life," he said, and to escape the high-pressure rat race.
"In the factory, I used to work from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. plus overtime, my time was not my own," Liu told CNN over the phone recently as he finished chopping up bamboo shoots. "Now I get to wake up to the sounds of birds chirping."
Liu's frustrations reflect a growing sense of disenchantment among young people in China, many of whom face a dire job market, burnout after years of grueling academic, social and work pressure, plus the traumatic impact of the country's draconian former pandemic policies.
According to the National Bureau of Statistics, China's youth unemployment rate in cities and towns hit a record-high 21.3% in June – before the government stopped releasing the uncomfortable data.
In response, authorities have encouraged urban youth to head to the countryside instead – a controversial proposal.
Last December, Chinese leader Xi Jinping urged young people to make the move to "revitalize the rural economy," a call that has drawn comparisons with a previous campaign launched decades ago by former leader Mao Zedong in which tens of millions of urban youths were effectively exiled to remote areas.
Xi was himself a member of the "sent-down youth" and has depicted his time in rural central China as a rewarding, life-changing experience that toughened his body and mind.
Authorities in Guangdong, one of China's most densely populated provinces and a major factory hub, said earlier this year they hope to send 300,000 unemployed young people to the countryside to find work.
For Liu, living in the mountains has its challenges. Those included the problem of no electricity, which he solved by installing numerous solar panels around his shack.
But he has also found an unconventional path to success – and a starkly different one than the farm work and blue-collar jobs Chinese authorities have encouraged urban youth to seek out.
Inspired by Chinese vlogger and influencer Li Ziqi, whose videos about life in rural China have earned her 18 million subscribers on YouTube, Liu now uploads weekly vlogs of his days in the mountains.
And he isn't alone. Dianxi Xiaoge, another Chinese food vlogger, teaches her more than 10 million YouTube subscribers how to cook healthy food from a village in southwest Yunnan province. Another pair of Gen Z "retirees," Xiao Chun Zi and Xin Xin's Rural Life from Sichuan province, also post content similar to Liu's.
Keep reading about Liu's life off the beaten path here.
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