Sustainable utopias

Niu Jian holds a stray dog, which he has named Xiaoguai, at the entrance of his cargo container home in Huairou district. Photo: Li Hao/GT

For nearly a year, Niu Jian has been living out of cargo containers in Huairou district on the outskirts of Beijing.

Each of the six resplendently white iron containers that makes up his home is decorated with pastel bouquets and each container demarcates a particular living space - bedroom, living room, office, kitchen, toilet. On the roof is a garden for growing flowers and vegetables.

The impression is one of pastoral idyll, and its purpose is to promote a more sustainable way of living.

"It is the first stage of a project to experiment with a new way of living, which is based on the principles of low-carbon, sustainable, environmentally friendly living," said Niu, 53, sitting leisurely in a rattan chair in his garden and holding a stray dog in his lap.

Niu and his wife moved into their unconventional lodgings last June, giving up their rented apartment in Haidian district. Their cargo container home was built with eco-friendly technologies in mind - electricity is partially supplied by solar and wind energy, and there is a comprehensive system for turning food and human waste into compost.

In all, their home cost Niu and his wife 300,000 yuan to build.

The idea behind their home, said Niu, was to create a model for sustainable communities that would "promote harmony between nature and humans."

Radish planted by Guo Donghui who takes part in the Ganyu Community project. Photo: Courtesy of Sui Yubing

Eco-friendly communes

Born in Shandong Province, Niu quit his job at a State-owned textiles manufacturing enterprise in Beijing in 2009 to found a "laboratory" for researching and creating sustainable living communities.

The seeds of Niu's idea were first planted when he was 17, thumbing through books of exotic flowers and plants on balconies overseas. Over time, he began to think more and more about how he could turn his fawning over images of marigolds and gardenias into an everyday reality.

He decided to call the entity he founded a laboratory rather than a company. Reflecting his humble approach, Niu's business card lists his title as zhongguo dashu - "Chinese uncle."

The next step of Niu's plan is to move his cargo container home to the International Auto Camping Park in Fengtai district, which he expects to happen in the next few days.

Two other cargo container homes are currently under construction at the park, which Niu hopes to use as a small model community in which to teach urbanites about alternative, more sustainable ways of living.

"I share similar values with the International Auto Camping Park, which also promotes mobile living spaces," said Niu.

During this stage of his plan, families will be invited to move into the two other cargo container homes on a short-term basis to experience what living in the kind of sustainable community envisioned by Niu might entail. They will be taught how to grow their own basic crops, recycle waste, and cooperate with other members of the community to share the fruits of their labors.

The third step of his plan is to build a sustainable living community based on these principles, consisting of more than 100 households.

Niu said that he sees his work as an attempt to address the pillaging of natural resources ushered in by industrialization, which has destroyed the ecological balance between nature and human beings.

"In China, people are starting to recognize the damage that is being done to our environment and trying to find solutions," said Niu. "The expanding middle-class have a responsibility to create a more sustainable society."

A volunteer helps Niu Jian tend to vegetables and flowers on the roof of Niu's home. Photo: Li Hao/GT

Living in the mountain

Niu is not alone in seeking and experimenting with alternative ways of living.

In 2011, artist Tang Guanhua and his wife, Xing Zhen, launched a rural sustainable living project called Another Land. The couple built a home in the Laoshan Mountain area in Shandong, where they lead a completely self-sufficient life, planting vegetables, raising chickens, weaving their own cloth for garments, brewing their own beer and generating their own electricity.

A preface for an exhibition of the project currently running at the ARTMIA Foundation in Caochangdi describes Tang and Xing's labors as part of the Intentional Communities movement, which seeks to liberate the daily necessities of life from industrial processes of manufacture and consumption.

Niu's home has also been the subject of considerable outside interest. With media outlets describing the haven as a "retreat from the world," Niu has been visited by numerous NGOs, real estate developers, architects and urban space designers keen to speak with him about the project.

"I've been contacted by many real estate companies who are interested in sustainable development," said Niu. "But I'm only interested in working with people who share the same values as me."

Niu said his goal is not to encourage people to flee from the cities to the countryside, but to create a model for living in urban areas that is an alternative to modern high-rises and residential apartment complexes.

Gao Jianfeng, a horticultural expert, told Xinhua News Agency that he thought Niu's project would face mounting challenges as it developed.

"[The project] will cost too much money to implement," said Gao. "The second phase of the project will cost 3 million yuan, and it's a very niche market. Without a viable commercial business model, the project will flounder."

Gao said that rather than trying to create new communities, an easier and more feasible way of promoting sustainable living in urban areas was to encourage people to grow vegetables in their homes.

Sustainable hutongneigborhood

Closer to the center of Beijing, in Donghuamen, Dongcheng district's bustling hutongneighborhoods, the idea of growing vegetables at home have been put into practice.

Since 2011, Ganyu Community Energy Saving Workshop and NGO Friends of Nature have been running workshops to teach residents in the area to grow common vegetables in their homes, as well as to recycle food waste to use as compost, according to Sui Yubing, executive director of the project.

"More than 100 people have participated in this community project," said Sui. "Apart from [their] own gardens in their homes, we also have a public field for planting vegetables together."

Sui said that most of the people involved in the project were senior citizens, and were playfully known as zhuangzhu ("suzerains"), a reference to feudal times when only rural lords had land and could grow their own crops.

"Our zhuangzhu regularly gather to share their experiences and grow vegetables with each other," said Sui.

Guo Donghui, a 64-year-old retired doctor, has been participating in the program since 2011, growing vegetables on her balcony.

At her apartment on the fourth floor of her building, she carefully cultivates various fresh produce and herbs, including lettuce, mint and basil, scattered across the windowsill and living room.

"During this year's Spring Festival, I even treated my relatives from the US to a salad made using the lettuce I had grown myself, which surprised them," said Guo.

One of the joys of having one's own small garden, said Guo, is being able to share the experience with others.

"We often meet up with the vegetables we've grown ourselves, to cook and eat together," said Guo. "Some of the vegetables turn out really nicely. It's really such a fulfilling experience."

Guo also keeps a gardening diary, accompanied by photos, that she shares with friends on WeChat.

The waste from the produce she and her family consume is subsequently recycled using the bokashi composting method she was taught through the program - in which organic food waste is fermented in a special container.

"My family eats a lot of fruit, so I collect all the fruit peels together in a container," said Guo.

"After…a period of fermentation, the waste can be used as fertilizer."

Sui said the workshops are also a way of uniting the community, especially those who are retired.

"The main purpose of the project is to teach people in the community about green, low-carbon, sustainable ways of living, and to work together toward that goal," said Sui.