Sleepy organic town wins first 'slow city' prize

Award recognizes efforts to preserve old-country, small-village atmosphere

A quiet village within Gaochun county, Jiangsu province of East China, has recently come under the media spotlight.

Yaxi village, with a population of 20,000, has been designated China's first "slow city" by Cittaslow, the sustainable lifestyle movement that first surfaced in Italy 11 years ago.

Yaxi's nearest "sister city" in the Asia-Pacific region will be Matakana, a little town in New Zealand's North Island where organic practices are a part of everyday life from the farmer's market to its vineyards, and from its neighborhood caf to its seafood restaurant.

At home, the residents at Yaxi are unfazed and pretty much unimpressed by the honor.

To them, life has been like this for as long as they can remember.

"Slow city? That sounds like us," said 81-year-old Mei Weibing, whose shoe shop in Gaochun's Old Street has been around for more than 50 years.

Mei does not believe in mass production and three of his sons and their wives help out in the family business, learning the vanishing trade in the process.

Every cloth shoe is painstakingly hand-stitched and Mei proudly declares: "I spend three days making one perfect pair of shoes."

It is this pride and spirit that first impressed Cittaslow, and the award is only a confirmation of the concerted efforts to preserve an old-country, small-village atmosphere where growth is limited, chain stores are discouraged and civic life revolves around a close-knit society.

Nobody living in this little county had heard of Cittaslow or the words "slow city" before this.

"The first time I heard the term was last July, when the vice-president of Cittaslow, Angelo Vassallo, visited Yaxi village," said Zuo Niansheng, the chief editor of local newspaper Gaochun Today.

"Vassallo was deeply impressed by this village's natural and cultural resources and said it perfectly fitted the requirements for a slow city," Zuo said.

Cittaslow was founded in Tuscany, Italy, in 1999. It was a spin-off from the Slow Food movement which started, also in Italy, in 1986 as a protest against the first McDonald's opening near the Spanish Steps in Rome.

The movement championed a return to healthy, nutritious home-grown, home-cooked food.

Slow Food has since expanded globally to more than 130 countries. Its mission has also broadened to include the promotion of sustainable foods and local small businesses, and the localization as opposed to globalization of food production.

Cittaslow is an expansion of the Slow Food movement, and it actively advocates a lifestyle that is sustainable, that will improve quality of life, and will preserve cultural and culinary heritage.

There are now 135 accredited slow cities in 24 countries across the world.

"In China, we will start with Gaochun," said Cittaslow chairman Pier Giorgio Oliveti. "Slow city is not a Europe-centered project, it is for the planet."

But the Slow City label has drawn criticism from some people who see it as further proof that Gaochun has walled itself off as an isolated enclave.

Wang Hongtao, who comes from a farming family in Yaxi village, has another take on the laid-back life.

He said he probably has a higher happiness index than those living in big cities like Beijing or Shanghai.

"We are homebodies. We love our hometown and we are not interested in moving to big cities in pursuit of the so-called 'better life'. I guess there are two sides to the coin."

Being awarded the Slow City tag may also have its flip-side, if things are not carefully managed. Tourism is set to boom.

Already, a new resort villa has opened and a new tour route to Yaxi is already in operation - all prepared for the potential rise in visitors.