The family of Kuo's niece lives in Beijng's Haidian district, widely known for its educational heritage as it is host to some of the country's best universities.

"From the age of three or four, my niece's life has been taken up by academic study and various after-school classes such as English, swimming, tennis and ballet. It seems all she does is study. She is not expected to spend time in nature, and too busy to do so even if she wanted."

"Now as a junior high school student, she has barely once washed the dishes or her own clothes, not to mention learned how to cook a meal or where rice and vegetables grow," he said.

"I feel sorry the way our children's generation grows up is much different from the way we did, in close interaction with nature," he added.

Right after the couple returned to Kunshan in 2019, Kuo sought an opportunity to join a startup team to create a special farm, which provided a solution to better foster his child and to temporarily free urban families from their busy modern lives.