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Zhanqiao Township · Linxiang · Hunan · China

The Magpie
Experiment

A village in Hunan, China.
Unfiltered.

Apply to Stay → ※ Current round has limited spots. Applications reviewed individually.

Why this exists

In the second year after I graduated from university, I built this house myself in a village most Chinese people have never heard of.

It is, of course, also a business.
But more importantly, it gives people the chance to slowly discover a more real China through everyday life.

For years, I have watched China being explained, simplified, distorted, and polished into a version foreign audiences already recognize: skylines, technology, and the easiest stories to accept. What rarely reaches the outside world is the other 90% of the country: the villages, the markets, an ordinary Tuesday morning when nothing important happens, yet everything is quiet, specific, and real.

I want to change that. Not by telling you what to think, but by giving you a place to stay long enough to see it for yourself.

This is not a hotel. It's not a tour.
It's an experiment — and you're part of it.

— Zayn, founder & builder

No gloss. No staging.
Just the place.

Before You Arrive

What is already here

Garden

The vegetables on your plate came from twenty meters away.

You can harvest them yourself, or help plant the next batch. The seasons here are not a metaphor — they run the kitchen. Whatever is ready is what you eat. Nothing is shipped in. Everything has a name.

Market

The town market opens every day. Five kilometers away.

Vendors who have known one another for decades. Prices written on cardboard. No English anywhere. Bring a translation app, or just point and smile. The market is not staged for visitors; it simply runs, as it always has.

Neighbors

The people next door are not acting out a version of rural life.

They grow vegetables, argue, cook, and watch TV after dinner — or at least try to, until the remote accidentally opens a menu they cannot read and do not know how to close.

If you are good with your hands, you may find yourself genuinely useful here. A satellite dish with no signal. A roof tile shifted after the rain. An elderly neighbor handing you her phone and asking for help buying a washing machine online — and from that day on, somehow, you become the personal after-sales support for that machine.

None of this will earn you money. What you may get instead is a meal that took three hours to make, a thumbs-up so sincere it needs no translation, and a very concrete feeling: in a place you did not expect, you are actually needed.

Your space

Stable Wi-Fi. Quiet mornings. No tourist infrastructure.

A quiet base for slow work, long mornings, and the kind of footage that only appears when you stay longer and move more freely. The house has twelve rooms, a shared kitchen, a reading room with more books than you will finish, and a view that makes it hard to sit down and work. But you will sit down, because the mountains will still be there.

The other side of this

This isn't only about solitude.

It is also about the people who share this house with you. Each round brings together a small group of creators, filmmakers, writers, and photographers — people who stay curious about the world and tend to turn what they notice into something of their own.

This is not a hotel stay, and it is not a ready-made tour. It is closer to a small rural residency. The house is only the base. The real experience happens outside it: the fields, the lake, the hills, the neighbors, the market, shared meals, small repairs, late-night conversations, the moment when someone suddenly says, “Should we make something out of this?”, and the unexpected friendships you leave with.

You are not here to consume a village from a distance. You are here to live close enough that the place begins to answer back.

The village provides the material. The people in the house bring the energy. What happens between them is the point.

What We Might Create Here

The village is the stage.
What happens on it depends on us.

When enough curious people live in the same house for a while, things may begin to happen on their own.

Different cultures meet here, but the material is still the simplest rural China: fields, water, hills, neighbors, shared rooms, and nights that may turn into something nobody planned.

None of this is scheduled, staged, polished, or guaranteed. These are possibilities, not included services. They depend on the people here, the season, the weather, the village, and whether someone is willing to actually make them happen.

01

Field

Plant. Water. Harvest.

02

Lake

Row. Cast nets. Fish.

03

Hills

Walk. Ride. Camp.

04

Village

Fix. Help. Be useful.

05

House

Paint. Tea brewing. Meditation.

06

After Dark

Bonfire. Film. Music.

Field / Lake

From the field to the water.

Some days may begin in the garden — planting, watering, harvesting, then cooking what the season gives; the lake may become part of the day too: rowing, casting nets, fishing, or simply drifting for an afternoon. If we catch anything, it may end up improving dinner.

Hills / Village

Through the hills, into the village.

We may walk through the hills, ride along village roads, or camp under pine trees. We may also find small moments of usefulness with elderly neighbors: fixing a TV, helping in the field, threading a needle, or doing whatever the day makes possible.

House / After Dark

From tea and stillness to fire and song.

Inside the house, we may practice Chinese calligraphy, paint, learn how to brew Chinese tea, meditate, do yoga, or sit quietly for a while. After dark, the rhythm can change: a bonfire, an open-air film, karaoke, long conversations, or even a village band that forms here and tours the village for no practical reason at all.

Honest disclosure

This place is not for most people.

—

No room service. No concierge. No carefully curated experience.

—

Mobile signal is weak in parts of the property.

—

The nearest city is over an hour away.

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Your neighbors will not speak English.

—

If you are looking for a comfortable, easy introduction to China, this may not be the place you are looking for.

This place is for a specific kind of person: someone who finds weak signal liberating, who treats inconvenience as a kind of doorway, who wants to say — honestly — “I lived in a Chinese village for a month, and this is what I actually found.”

If that's you, read on.

Where, exactly

Zhanqiao Township, Linxiang
Hunan Province, China

WE ARE HERE Wuhan 2.5 hrs · major city Wudang Mts. 5.5 hrs · UNESCO heritage Three Gorges 4 hrs · Yangtze River Shennongjia 5 hrs · primeval forest Zhangjiajie 4 hrs · Avatar Mountains Fenghuang 5 hrs · ancient town Yueyang 60 km · Dongting Lake Changsha 2 hrs · HSR + airport Mt. Heng 3.5 hrs · sacred mountain Tongcheng 20 min · nearest town Town Market 5 km · daily WE ARE HERE

*Tap a name on the map to view its image.

The arrangement

This is not a nightly rate.

It is a complete period. Choose the one that fits your current situation.

Entry period

14-Day Residency

¥2,800

~$410 USD

Rates may fluctuate; settlement is based on the RMB amount at transaction time.

  • Private room, 14 nights
  • Shared kitchen, fully equipped
  • Garden access & market runs
  • Rural life without gloss
Recommended

30-Day Residency

¥3,800

~$560 USD

Rates may fluctuate; settlement is based on the RMB amount at transaction time.

  • Private room, 30 nights
  • Everything above
  • Long enough to stop being a visitor
  • A complete cycle — one season

Both stays are priced as complete periods, not by the night. Leaving early does not change the total. Meals are not included; the shared kitchen is fully equipped. Meals cooked with local ingredients can be arranged separately for an additional fee. Each round has a maximum of 13 guests across 12 rooms.

About content — please read carefully

I am not paying you
to say China is wonderful.

I am not asking you to say anything fixed at all.

I believe this: if you really spend a month here, you will find something worth sharing — something most creators never get close enough to see. To apply, please share your social media profile, preferably TikTok or Instagram, and at least one recent piece of work. This is not about follower count. It is about whether you actually make things.

If you choose to post about your time here, post honestly, with no preset angle, enable TikTok’s content disclosure label, and tag: Founder on TikTok: @zayn66888

30K – 100Kviews
¥300
refund
100K – 500Kviews
¥500
refund
500K – 1Mviews
¥800
refund
1M+views
Full
refund
No script. No required position. Positive, critical, or complicated — all of it serves the same purpose: allowing more people to see a China that was not staged for them. That is the point of this experiment. · Views are checked 30 days after posting. One video per stay may count toward the refund.

How to apply

Three steps.
Not every application is accepted.

01

Fill in the application

Tell us who you are, what you make, and when you want to come. Share your TikTok or social media profile — we want to see the work, not the follower count.

02

We review and respond

We are looking for people who are genuinely curious, not people just looking for cheap accommodation. We read every application and respond within a few days.

03

Confirm via WhatsApp

If accepted, we will connect on WhatsApp to confirm dates, answer questions, and work out transport and other details. Simple and direct.

Submit your application →

Applications reviewed on a rolling basis · Spots are limited by design

FAQ

FAQ

China’s entry rules vary by nationality and may change. Some travelers may be eligible for visa-free entry, while others need to apply for a tourist visa in advance. Before applying, please check the latest information from the Chinese embassy, consulate, or official visa center in your country.

Honestly, probably not. If you haven't been to China before, you'll likely want to move around and see the cities first. This place works best as a second chapter — after you've seen the skylines, when you want something quieter and more ordinary.

The main building has stable broadband Wi-Fi, good enough for video calls and uploads. Mobile signal is weaker outdoors and in parts of the property. Please plan accordingly. Some people treat this as a feature, not a problem.

Yes. One room is a twin. Maximum 13 guests per cohort across 12 rooms. If you're coming as a pair, mention it in your application.

Mandarin and the local Hunan dialect. Villagers generally do not speak English. A translation app helps a lot. The awkwardness of communication is part of the experience, and it usually ends in laughter.

The daily market is 5 km away. Tongcheng, the nearest small city in Hubei, is about 20 minutes by car and has a cinema, large supermarkets, cafés, bars, restaurants, and banks — the essentials of a city, at a quieter scale. Yueyang, home to Yueyang Tower and Dongting Lake, is about 60 km away. Changsha is about two hours away. You will not be stranded here.

You are free to leave whenever you want. The residency period is priced as a whole, so leaving early does not change the total cost. This is stated clearly in the application form. We are not trying to hold anyone in place; we just need the structure to be financially sustainable.