Let's coast! Young Chinese professionals leaving the rat race for better quality of life

While many young professionals his age are trapped in a monotonous grind in Shenzhen's central business district, Zhang Fengzhi has managed to escape the rat race. Zhang, 32, and his wife Gao Fei quit their jobs five years ago (he was a corporate trainer in Zhuhai; she was an archaeological researcher in Anhui province) to set up one of the first homestays at Jiaochangwei, a remote fishing village on Dapeng peninsula near Shenzhen.

"Opening a homestay along the coast and having a laid-back life has always been our dream," Zhang says.

"Many people think young men in their 20s or 30s should get regular jobs and strive for success in big corporations. Our parents were among the strong opponents, who believed we should live by 'honest' labour ... But if we can live a life that we've been dreaming of now, why should I waste my time and live someone else's nine-to-five life in an office cubicle?"

In Shenzhen, a growing number of professionals like Zhang are putting quality of life above material success, and are seeking alternatives to avoid meaningless burnout in the workplace.

Working hours in China are some of the longest in the world and according to China Radio International, about 600,000 people across the mainland die from overwork every year - a toll of more than 1,600 every day.

Media attention so far has focused mainly on factory workers, particularly after the suicides of more than a dozen people who worked assembly plants operated by contract manufacturer Foxconn, in Shenzhen. But white-collar staff are subjected to enormous pressures, too. Last year Li Yuan, a 24-year-old employee at the Beijing office of international advertising agency Ogilvy & Mather, died of a heart attack after allegedly working until 11pm every night for a month. In 2011, a 25-year-old employee at the Shanghai office of PricewaterhouseCoopers died from acute cerebral meningitis, allegedly triggered by overwork.