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Planting Seeds of Hope in Qiandao Ecovillage

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From August 1st to August 15th 2022, a permaculture design certification course took place at Qiandao Lake Ecovillage which is located in the southwest of the Thousand Island (Qiandao) Lake Zhejiang Province, China. 44 Participants from different areas of China spent 15 days together learning permaculture principles. We worked in groups to design group projects and gained hands-on experiences making compost piles, natural buildings, and gardens. 

2022 PDC Participants at Qiandao Ecovillage

Qiandao Lake Ecovillage was founded in April 2014. In September 2013, Venerable Master Konghai was invited by the local county magistrate to serve as the consultant for a government-led project which intended to establish a learning center for traditional Chinese Culture. Master Konghai held deep care for the planet and asked the magistrate to consider making an ecovillage on Qiandao Lake. The local government responded swiftly in a few days and provided convenience for him to visit several possible locations. After evaluating all the places, Master Konghai decided to set a piece of land in a valley. The place was beautiful and quite secluded. 20 years ago, local villagers migrated out of nearby villages to cooperate with the government’s plan for building the Xin’anjiang Reservoir. Therefore, land here had been returned to nature for 20 years before a group of 20 young people came as pioneers for an ecovillage.

At first, there was no architecture except for a thatched shed which later became the ecovillage’s tool hut. 20 young ecovillagers lived in the shed which leaked rain on rainy days. They started growing food and created initial infrastructures for an ecovillage. The local government played a vital role in making electricity accessible, followed by an 800,000 yuan (approximately 112,000 USD) investment helping to build the road connecting the ecovillage to its nearby village.

“When you have a truly selfless intention to benefit the whole world, benevolent forces will synchronize together to support you”

Master Konghai
Dining hall structure with banana circle in front

Nowadays, around 25 regular residents dwell at Qiandao Lake Ecovillage. They carry out courses and workshops for making ecovillages, learning principles about the Tao, and practicing a lifestyle that is centered on spiritual growth. The place had been transforming its residents and visitors, incubating Earth Seeds that create eco projects all over the country. Core courses that took central place for residents and visitors included Mysteries of Dao De Jing Revealed, No Boundary: Eastern and Western Approaches to Personal Growth, and Theory and Practices for Building Ecovillages. Such shared learnings brought all villagers together and provided them with resources for solving disagreements in their community.

Ecologically, Qiandao village had been practicing natural farming since its beginning. Experienced teachers of natural farming and permaculture were invited periodically to give courses. The village has also been storing rainwater, practicing a zero-waste lifestyle, using a banana circle to process grey water, and maintaining their composting toilets. In recent years, natural buildings have also become a key feature and strength. Several small self-circulating systems which consist of natural buildings, rainwater collectors, gardens, and animals had been created by residents near the ecovillage’s center region. The team is now planning an outdoor classroom for children’s education.

Qiandao Ecovillage plants seeds of hope by making itself an example of living in harmony with nature, which is the teaching of both permaculture and the Tao. We wish it to keep flourishing and transform more visitors who are nourished by this land. There’s no time like now that the planet urges us to observe its laws and come into alignment with the principles of Heaven and the Earth.

About the Author

Yuting Yin, University of California Davis

Yuting is a Ph.D. student of anthropology at the University of California Davis. She is an ecovillage researcher and focuses on studying ecovillages in China. She has studied mental health and organized support groups for people who struggle with eating disorders. Her interest in mind-body well-being leads her to explore ecovillages since 2016. After two years of living in a cooperative living community in Davis, California. Currently, her research journey is taking her to deepen her roots in her native cultural tradition and tap into the power of practicing what is learned along the way.

Southern Life Community Participating at the Daomi ‘ao International Contemporary Art Exhibition, China

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The second Doumi ‘ao Contemporary Art Exhibition was commenced on 30th September 2021 in Doumi ‘ao Village, Songyang County, Zhejiang Province. The village is an ancient village rich with cultural gems, with more than 400 years of history. Recently the village resources have gradually lost their vitality and their resources have been underutilized due to the urbanization trend of young people.

The exhibition is part of an ongoing government effort for rural revitalization and protection of culture. The Songyang County government has started to implement the “One Hundred Artists Settled in Songyang Village Plan” in 2018 in an effort to slowly bring abandoned villages back to life. At present, the county has organized the preservation of 142 old houses, 63 houses and formally signed a contract with 60 artists to create a batch of art villages such as Doumi ‘ao Village. The first Doumi ‘ao International Contemporary Art Exhibition in 2019 hit national headlines and made local villagers see the hope of revitalization in their hometown.

Southern Life Community, participated in the exhibition by renovating an old house in Doumi ‘ao Village and transforming it into an exhibition hall. In this exhibition, they show the development history of their community over the past five years and make art installations using objects from their daily life. Other than being an exhibition space, the house will also serve as a working and living space for artists and other community members.

About the Southern Life Community

Southern Life Community is one of the first intentional communities in Mainland China. It is a community based on openness and sharing. We welcome visitors and residents from all over the world to join our way of life and co-create in working teams. We have always been committed to accommodating groups discriminated against by society including women, people with disabilities, farmers, and sexual minorities. We share the common view that we are friends no matter who we are. So our members often do not care about external image, skin color, gender, and other differences. We believe that there is no garbage in the world, only misplaced treasures. In our community, each of us has access to public resources and a vote. Everyone has the right to speak up during and initiate a meeting.

We have a wealth of crafts going on where women play an important role in this work. Men are often engaged in manual labor. However, people are able to freely explore what they want to do in our community. Our daily activities in the community over the years have been to build houses, farm fields, play music, make sculptures, and build bridges between people from all over the world. Through the daily processes of action, understanding and integration happen quietly.

By organizing and planning a large number of art activities every year, we try to make social integration truly happen through art. Through the beauty of art, beautiful moments where there is no difference between people often appear. 

We believe that ecological civilization is the future. Ecological civilization is a civilization that embraces diversity. Nothing is absolutely bad, and every species has its meaning and value of existence, and its value and significance are balanced. With this in mind, we also engaged in ecosystem restoration and research and have restored 200 mu (1333+ square meters) of wetland in a nearby area over the past years. 

Our community is made of new residents who are attracted to the countryside and want to settle here and also local people who have a passion for active social work to build their area. New residents who came have been paying attention to the countryside, they use their experience and understanding of city living and bring new perspectives and different possibilities to the local peoples’ daily life and work. There are also short-term residents who come for volunteering, research and engaging in different projects. Through interaction with different people coming from different backgrounds, local people get a fresh and different view of their daily life. Gradually, local people become more involved co-creation process of our community as organizers and co-sponsors of on-site projects and facilitating gentle integration of new residents with local conditions. With the gradual deepening of the relationship between new residents and local people, the formation of a common goal of sharing life and mutual assistance happens naturally.

The formation of our community will be an experimental sample of new rural communities in China, exploring the values of sharing and altruism, the worldview of peace and goodwill, and the consensus community with scientific and artistic thinking. Hopefully, we can be a long-term inspiration for the transformation of more villages.

Tang Guanhua, Founder of Souther Life Community

Tang Guanhua is the founder of Southern Life Community. He is an artist and an intentional community enthusiast. At one point in his life, he moved from the city to LaoShan mountain with his wife to experiment with self-sufficient lifestyles and built a self-sufficiency laboratory for youth to learn self-sufficient lifestyles. With such experience, he established AnotherLand NGO, the first and only NGO focusing on eco-community development in China. He organized China Intentional Community Summit two times and helped the Chinese people to understand the concept of an intentional community better by refining the term in the Chinese language. He is considered to be the founder of the China Intentional Community movement by the Chinese media. In 2015 he founded Southern Life Community, an experimental intentional community in southern China that attracted thousands of people to come and explore sustainable lifestyles. He has been awarded the China Post-85 Charity Figure Award, Top 10 Public Welfare Project Awards of People’s Daily, nominated for UNDP Equator Prizes, and shortlisted for the UN 2018 Young Champions of the Earth. His artworks have been collected by the Museum of Contemporary art Beijing, Alibaba Foundation, Tamera Peace Research and Educational Center, Federation of Damanhur, and much more.