In 2019, a cold, sleepy mining town called Hegang went viral for having the lowest house prices of any big city in China. Blog posts boasted of sizeable apartments costing as little as 46,000 yuan ($6,700). Many thought it was a hoax, others saw an opportunity.

The Economist’s Beijing bureau chief, David Rennie, and senior China correspondent, Alice Su, meet the people making Hegang their home and hear why the pressures of life in China’s major cities are motivating them to move there.

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