The Chinese émigrés leaving the pressures of home for laid back Chiang Mai

Thai tourist hotspot popular with backpackers has become an unlikely second home for thousands of Chinese people seeking alternative lifestyles

Approaching her mid-30s, Xiong Yidan reckons that most of her friends are on to their second or even third babies. But Xiong has more than a dozen. There is Lucky, the street dog from Bangkok who jumped into a taxi with her and never left. There is Sophie and Ben, sibling geese, who honk from morning to night. Boop and Pan, both goats, are romantically involved. Dumpling the hedgehog enjoys a belly rub from time to time. The list goes on.

Xiong nurtures her brood from her 8,000 square metre farm in Chiang Dao, a mountainous district in northern Thailand’s Chiang Mai province. Xiong has chronicled her journey from Beijing cryptocurrency marketing executive to farm girl in Thailand on social media; she’s particularly popular on Xiaohongshu, a female-focused app similar to Instagram, where she has more than 38,000 followers. Her account shows people that switching to a slower pace of life “is not just some illusion or idealistic thing, but is very actionable,” she says.

Continue reading…