Urban travelers seek pastoral peace

"Our solar system resides in a remote corner of the Milky Way, far from the tumultuous battles between stars and untouched by the grasp of black holes. In this desolate place, Earth has nurtured a flourishing civilization. Everything is miraculously just right," she adds.

From children to the elderly, stargazing holds universal appeal. The starry sky encapsulates the inherent romance within the soul.

Liu reminisced about a summer night in Wuyuan county, Jiangxi, the year she graduated from college. So many twinkling stars filled the sky, it seemed to overflow as if they might come tumbling down. She says it feels increasingly difficult to come across such a scene since.

Both Liu and I miss our childhood days when there was little modern entertainment and our hometowns had not yet been filled with tall buildings and dense, intrusive lights — a time when it was natural to see stars in the night sky.

Liu says she took her daughter, who just graduated from primary school, to the camp, hoping to share her passion for stars and give some basic astronomy education via a guided stargazing experience.

The next generation is growing up in a distinctly different environment. Amid school pressures, they tend to seek more exhilarating entertainment forms, opting to lower their heads and gaze at screens. Stargazing may seem bland in comparison, so they had to find a rural camp thousands of kilometers from home, she says.

We believed that her daughter's interest would be ignited on a clear night, instead of leaving her absently listening to her mother talking excitedly with Fu about astronomy concepts in the rain.

Fu's guest accommodations are designed to resemble round space capsules, with raised bottoms that resist moisture and insects while still allowing grass to grow. Such a design reminds me of the traditional yurts I saw during my trip, as if the modern "nomads" are poised to return the space to the earth.