- Stella Guan, 34, is a digital nomad who has been traveling the world for the past year.
- Her parents, in their early 60s, retired last year and decided to join her for the summer.
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Stella Guan, a 34-year-old graphic designer, educator, and digital nomad retreat organizer about her experience living in China alongside her retired parents. The essay has been edited for length and clarity.
I started as a digital nomad, almost entirely unplanned. And this arrangement was unplanned as well.
My parents are in retirement right now, and they're finally in a place where they can just travel and not worry about anything else. They lived in Guangdong Province, which is right next to Hong Kong.
They're still young enough to not have mobility issues, so they packed up their house last year and wanted to travel more.
My mom worked for a clothing company and my dad was an engineer. In China, women retire a lot earlier than men, so she has basically been waiting for my dad to retire before she traveled.
My parents are on social media and watched all these other people close to their age — in their early 60s, other retirees — traveling. And they wanted to do that as well.
They were inspired by other people more than their own child.
We chose a rural part of China for our two months of living together
We moved out to Yunnan, a rural region, in June.
The weather is perfect. It's in a mountainous region — it's just high enough that you feel cool, but it's not too high that you can't breathe.
I just love mountains, and mountains are everywhere. It reminds me of California, but I'd say that the weather is even better than California.
Lunch can be as little as $2 and rent is under $100
The cost of living is really, really amazing. It's like half of what big cities are.
It really is supercheap to live here.
Just yesterday, my mom and I were taking a walk around the neighborhood, and my mom saw this building with available apartments for rent. So she asked this guy in front of the building, "How much do you pay for rent here?" And then he said, "600 renminbi," which is actually about $90 a month for a one-bedroom.
We went and looked. It's not luxurious or anything, but it's pretty well-lit and a decent place to live.
Right now, my parents and I rent two apartments that together cost $200 a month.
Even with food for the month, it's under $300 to live here. You can get a really delicious bowl of noodles for the equivalent of $1.50 to $2.
I work during the day while they shop at local markets
They usually go out to the market in the morning, because they like to buy fresh food every day.
They like to drive around, go to different markets. My mom takes her time haggling, choosing different vegetables. My dad is less interested, but he drives her.
I stay at the house to work.
I'm mostly done by early afternoon and if I'm not, they sort of force me to take a break. In this regional town, people just hang out. It's just super relaxed.
We'll spend our afternoons doing family time. Right now my dad is teaching me how to drive. He'll take me out to practice.
Recently we've done a few small weekend trips. There was a local fire festival that's really cool — it's one of the biggest annual events in the region. We also went to a small town with this really unique folk architectural style 30 to 40 minutes away.
I definitely encourage other families to do it. It's not very often you get to spend this much time with your parents as an adult.
We have such limited time with them. I think traveling is its own form of bonding, too.
You definitely have to understand the physical limitations of your older parents, because they may not be able to keep up with you. But that's perfectly fine.
It really is all about the family time.