Anxious and stressed about their careers, young Chinese are flocking to temples

After graduating from university at the height of the pandemic in 2021, Lu Zi landed an enviable job with an e-commerce giant. A year later, she had given it all up and was living at a Buddhist temple in eastern China.

Like many of her peers, Lu was ambitious and spent her university years planning for her career – with a degree in Chinese, she saw a future in e-commerce. But 12 months into her first job she needed a break and decided to volunteer at the temple in Jiaxing, Zhejiang province.