Trending · Lifestyle
China’s farm-stay restaurants are back, as cook-it-yourself kitchens
被年轻人抛弃的农家乐杀回来了
Tens of thousands of countryside restaurants closed. Now young people are paying to cook their own lunch in them.
In short
Traditional farm-stay restaurants (农家乐) lost young customers and tens of thousands closed. A new format is reviving them: hands-on “chaos kitchen” sessions where groups cook, grill and eat outdoors, inspired by cooking classes in Chiang Mai and a riverside “Wild Kitchen” in Tengchong, Yunnan. Copies have spread around Chongqing, Beijing, Shanghai and Hangzhou.
How it works
Visitors spend half a day cooking rather than being served: shopping at a market, grilling meat, making hot pot, collecting duck eggs or joining a coffee or paper-making session. The original Wild Kitchen in Tengchong charges about ¥100 a person for unlimited food after a five-kilometre walk through a river valley.
Suburban farms near big cities have copied the look, with rattan furniture and tropical plants. Some visitors complain about crowding and classes of 30 to 40 people per teacher.[1]
Why it trended
It is a comeback story for a format many young people had written off. According to Baidu’s summary, restaurants that turned their kitchens into a hands-on experience are full again, with spending above ¥200 a person.[2]
Sources
- 36Kr, Grandma’s Kitchen and Wild Kitchen: the cook-it-yourself boom (28 July 2026, in Chinese) · accessed 25 Oct 2026
- Baidu Hot Search, story summary (25 October 2026, in Chinese) · accessed 25 Oct 2026
Picked from Baidu’s public hot-search list and checked against the reports above. Suggest a correction