People sit on a dock in Erhai Lake in Dali, Yunnan. More young Chinese people are moving to smaller settlements like those near Dali to find peace outside of society's confines. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

The rolling Lesser Khingan Mountains are shrouded in mist brought by drizzling days that rinse Heilongjiang province's Yichun city. The broad Tangwang River runs through the settlement's farms that punctuate the forest. Redbrick houses are strewed among the trees and meadows.

This relatively obscure town in the country's far-flung northeast is where celebrity travel blogger Xu Yun announced in a video that he would live in seclusion.

The 33-year-old seemed to suddenly transform from a nomadic cyclist known to his millions of followers as "Xu Yun Roaming China" into a hermit.

Yichun is truly suited for quiet living. The sparsely populated settlement across the river from Russia is colloquially known as the "forest capital".

Yet Xu is but a high-profile figure within a growing trend in which more Chinese are moving to smaller cities, like Rushan in Shandong province, Shaxi in Yunnan province and Hui'an in Fujian province, where housing is cheaper yet infrastructure is adequate to provide sufficient comfort.

Many Chinese who seek such lives join online groups like "Baidu Yinju (living in seclusion) Ba". The digital community was founded in 2012, but its followers have more than doubled from 550,000 to 1.12 million over the past two years, during which time the number of posts have grown from 7 million to over 9 million.

This coincides with the "lying flat" trend, in which followers save money until they have enough to move to a place with affordable housing.

A secluded house with a bridge and a stream seems to epitomize many young people's ideal escape from bustling city life. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

Four days after arriving at the Yichun Forest Farm, Xu bought a decent house at the foot of the Lesser Khingan Mountains and got enough coal and firewood to last three years. He planned to renovate the property into a place where he could cook and farm, and raise cats and dogs.

It was in a similar spirit that Zou Nanpeng left the company he founded in East China's Shandong province for Dali, in Southwest China's Yunnan.

He couldn't pinpoint exactly when this idea was planted in his heart.

"All I can say is that, since childhood, I'd always lived within society's framework and fulfilled others' expectations. I hadn't done anything for me."

These restrictions seemed to tighten once he turned 30, until, after returning from a trip to Dali this spring, he decided to "loosen the reins" that bound him.

Back then, the online community was mostly about sharing the daily experiences of members who were scattered in small settlements throughout the country. They posted photos of crops, and talked about raising animals and building grass huts. Many conversations evaluated the pros and cons of different remote locations

After careful consideration, he chose to rent a downtown house with four bedrooms and bathrooms, a living room and a large terrace. On clear days, he can see the Cangshan Mountains and Erhai Lake.

Before long, Zou opened a homestay there. While this may seem to contradict the "lying flat" spirit, he explains: "I have to accept reality. We still need to support ourselves and counter risks."

Zhang Fengyuan has followed "Baidu Yinju Ba" for 14 years, which is half of the 28-year-old's life.

"It seemed interesting. So, I clicked on it. It was exactly the kind of life I'd wanted since I was younger."

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Back then, the online community was mostly about sharing the daily experiences of members who were scattered in small settlements throughout the country. They posted photos of crops, and talked about raising animals and building grass huts. Many conversations evaluated the pros and cons of different remote locations.

"Maybe it's because I've been a bit introverted since I was young," Zhang says.

"I don't like interacting with others. I worked in e-commerce, which doesn't require social skills. So, I thought about finding a small mountain village to live in."

But other members of the group opposed his idea. They said he was too young to live in such isolation and should see the world first, and that "lying flat" was about inner cultivation rather than escape, be it in a tranquil forest or a bustling city.

Erhai Lake in Dali, Yunnan province, is known for its scenic landscapes. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

Zhang heeded their words and stayed in the city to run his online-sakes business. But he had to switch careers, as the field became overrun with competitors. He tried several other jobs but finally decided to become a mortuary beautician.

That was 10 years ago. Today, Zhang is enjoying the secluded life of his dreams, doing work that doesn't require interpersonal interactions and living with plenty of his own time in the countryside.

Most of his friends and family disapprove.

"It's impossible to please everyone. I'm prepared to pay the price to live outside the mainstream," Zhang says.

"Lots of folks think people who want to live in seclusion are grappling with pain or setbacks or the ugliness of humanity — that they're too fragile and are escaping from reality and responsibility. But most aren't like that. They've thought about it for a long time."

Actually, rather than coming from a place of fear, it requires, instead, courage, he says.

A young visitor sips coffee at a bar in Lijiang, Yunnan province. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

Only occasionally, when he wakes up from a nap and sees dusk fall outside his window, does he feel a strange loneliness.

Since he doesn't have anyone to talk to, he instead browses "Yinju Ba" and also shares photos of his meals and cats with other members.

Sometimes, users praise his cooking. Other times, they chat with him about recent happenings. And many times, there's no response at all.

But no matter what, the group offers him some kind of satisfaction.

Zou's favorite in-person social activity is watching the local torch festival. The flames carried by crowds light up the land like stars and illuminate the night sky. Two-story-high torches stand on the street corners. And young people sing and dance around bonfires while smearing one another's faces with ashes to convey blessings.

The ancient city of Lijiang is set at the foot of a sparsely populated mountain range. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

As the number of "hermits" in "Yinju Ba" grows and many of them are young like Zhang and Zou. Their typical motivations are also changing with the times.

The earlier practitioners were more like homesteaders, who left cities to work from sunrise to sunset to build houses and farms in remote areas — a lifestyle that's not only old but ancient, as recorded by Eastern Jin Dynasty (317-420) poet Tao Yuanming (365-427). And this way of life is certainly busy, although self-reliant, rather than hectic and highly interdependent like people in cities.

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Compared with the escapism of fleeing the pressures of urban life that largely defined the trend a decade ago, today, more young people are "lying flat" in small settlements as acts of spiritual rebellion, to find peace outside of society's confines.

Zhang doesn't know how long his seclusion will — or, ultimately, can — last. But a decade into the experience, he's not worried about this aspect of his future.

He recalls the words "Yinju Ba" users offered him a decade ago that changed his life in ways that have lasted until today: "Seclusion is a process of inner cultivation — not of escape."

Yan Bingjie contributed to this story.