Young couple pursue green mountain life
- By Chen Xia
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E-mail China.org.cn, April 16, 2014
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| A young Chinese couple set up an eco-village called the "Self-Sufficiency Lab" to prove that modern people can still survive and live satisfying lives without the use of high technology. [photo/qq.com] |
Up on the 1,132-meter-high Laoshan Mountain, near the East China Sea on the southeastern coastline of Shandong Province, a young Chinese couple set up an eco-village called the "Self-Sufficiency Lab" to prove that modern people can still survive and live satisfying lives without the use of high technology.
So far, they have spent three years living in the secluded place.
The couple has a clear division of labor. The wife, Xing Zhen, is responsible for producing all daily necessities, including shoes, clothes, soaps, sugar and salt; while the husband, Tang Guanhua, is responsible for designing and improving their lab, sharing their stories on the website Anotherland.org and giving advice to those who also desire to live a rural life.
Nowadays, the two have really settled in on the mountain, but three years ago, when they first arrived, they only had three shabby cabins and a small patch of land to grow vegetables. When temperatures dropped, they couldn't even sleep through the night.
Nevertheless, harship has never been a concern of the couple. "I was fully aware before I came up here that I would encounter difficulties," Tang said.
Over the past three years, they have spared no efforts to expand their home. With the help of their friends, Tang has learned how to build cabins, collect plastic bottles to make insulating layers and experiment with steel bars. Xing has learned to extract fiber from ramie, spin out threads and make shoes and clothes by hand. The two also learned to start a fire in the most primitive way.
The only modern technology they resort to on the mountain is electricity, but even this is generated by an experimental solar power device and a bicycle power generator. Inside this simple lab, the couple are doing all they can to realize their dream and promote green lifestyle.
Tang and Xing tied the knot last year. After that, they spent more and more time on the mountain and rarely went down anymore. Xing has learned to make all kinds of fabrics, such as silk, yak wool and ramie thread, and has made several shirts for Tang as well as a cotton jacket for herself. "Next year, I want to raise silkworms and make silk clothes," she said.
Tang has made a short animation movie to show the whole process of making charcoal. "In the next five years, we plan to write a book named ‘The Handbook on Producing Daily Necessities on Your Own' to show people how to build a house, generate power, grow vegetables and produce daily necessities such as oil, salt, sauce, vinegar and sugar by hand," Tang said.
Almost everyone who has visited the lab describes the place as being "Utopia," but Tang doesn't care for the comparison. He argues that Utopia was in fact an imaginary world, whereas what they are doing is 100 percent real.
"I'm no opponent to lifestyles different from mine," Tang said. "It doesn't matter what kind of lifestyle it is, as long as it can solve our problems. Besides, history won't go backwards."
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