Beyond The City 乡村笔记

Beyond the City, a social enterprise, was founded in September 2017 by graduates of Fudan University, to address the social and economic gap between the city and rural areas in China. Beyond The City’s goal is to eliminate the economic barriers, highlight social inequalities between urban and rural China, and promote a holistic understanding of China to the international community. Beyond The City offers educational tours for urban youth to travel to several rural Provinces such as Hunan, Sichuan, Anhui, and Shandong. The tours aim to facilitate a better understanding of rural life by creating opportunities to explore, experience, interact and to bridge the gap between urban and rural China. As part of Beyond The City’s programming, underprivileged students from rural villages also have the opportunity to participate in professional development tours to the urban centres of Shanghai and Chengdu. Through these tours, rural youth gain a better understanding of urban opportunities and innovative approaches that they can bring back to their communities. To encourage stronger economic ties between urban and rural China, Beyond The City also supports rural communities to develop e-commerce platforms to sell their agricultural products directly to shops and households in urban areas.