Recruitment, programme records, participant stories, and reviews for ecological farming internships.
In Part One of “Internship Notes from a Desert Oasis”, I attempted to revert to my instincts as a business journalist, examining the operational struggles faced by ecological farms. Yet, during my two-month internship at Zhiliangtian Farm in Alxa, being a barista was, in reality, my day-to-day routine at the…
In May, I left my job, said a temporary goodbye to Beijing, and headed to the Zhi Liang Tian Ecological Farm in Alxa, Inner Mongolia, where I spent two months. I didn’t expect that during my first month at the farm, I would be drinking every single day. Two-thirds of…
Earlier this spring, before visiting Sister Yan Ping’s “Happy Fruit and Herb Garden” in Guigang, Guangxi, I harboured a mistaken assumption that the farm lay remote from civilisation and enjoyed a pristine ecological setting. In reality, however, it is surrounded by conventional orchards, where pesticides, chemical fertilisers and herbicides are…
At the end of 2020, I left the non-profit organisation where I had worked for over seven years. I wanted to try a way of working that was independent of any institutional structure and allowed for a relatively balanced state of body, mind, and intellect, while also seeking a lifestyle…
Before starting my internship at Letian Bay Farm, I often pictured the customers here as a bunch of dedicated environmentalists. Otherwise, how could one explain why city dwellers would make the trek out to the countryside? In an age when everyone is rushing towards urban centres, going against the current…
Letian Haiwan Farm in Fengxian, Shanghai, is decidedly not your typical eco-farm. When I arrived for my internship this past March, I immediately sensed this place differed from my preconceptions of agriculture: it wasn’t simply about growing crops, but also involved leasing land and hosting events. You couldn’t help but…
Three months at Happiness Fruit Baicaoyuan have blurred the passage of time. All I truly recall is the overcast sky on my arrival, and the cloudless blue as I departed. I. Discovering Baicaoyuan: A New “Peach Blossom Spring” Happiness Fruit Baicaoyuan is a farm situated in Guigang, Guangxi, not far…
In 2021, after a decade of drifting in Beijing, I returned to my hometown of Shenxian County in Shandong due to my mental and physical health. I stayed there for nearly a year. Shenxian is often called “China’s premier vegetable county”, with fruit and vegetable cultivation covering more than a…
Recently, reports of Henan’s ‘rotting-field rain’ and the frantic rush to harvest wheat have swept across social media, striking a chord with everyone who follows agriculture. The Guanzhong region of Shaanxi, another major wheat-growing area, endured the same downpours almost simultaneously with Henan, and the outlook for its wheat crops…
I’m Xiaomi. In December 2021, aged 26, I resigned from a civil service training company. Unsure of what kind of work I wanted to do next, I returned home to prepare for the Chinese New Year. Over the holiday period, I began to reflect on my future direction, realising that…
