Urban exodus for Chinese artists

While the Chinese government is trying to control the intense urbanization process, some Chinese artists have decided to leave the large, “polluted and overpopulated” cities and settle in the countryside, The Guardian reports. By opening businesses and services to cater for a new, rich urban class but also serving the locals, these artists want to revitalize old, under-populated but intact villages.

Thus was born the bookstore-café of Bishan, in an old temple of this southern Anhui historical village, which offers locals and urban dwellers a diversified cultural program, while helping rehabilitate these empty villages, whose relaxed life now attracts attention and investment form the cities.