This photo taken in July 2025 shows cucumber plants at a resident's balcony in Chengdu, southwest China's Sichuan Province. (Photo by Xie Yuqun/Xinhua)
BEIJING, May 22 (Xinhua) -- Dai Xiaohong's day begins with a walk through her hanging garden, a balcony filled with leafy vegetables, potted blueberries and cascading flowers, all thriving high above the bustling streets of Hangzhou, capital of east China's Zhejiang Province.
For 22 years, Dai has been growing edible plants on her high-rise balcony. Like most urban residents across China, she lives in a multi-story apartment building rather than a house with a yard. What started as a few foam boxes of Chinese cabbage has evolved into a lush, multi-tiered garden with professional planters and grow lights, drawing a devoted online following. Now retired, she often brings homegrown vegetables as gifts when meeting friends.
"This hobby fills my life with joy and brings me numerous friends," Dai said. "Right now, during the spring planting season, we constantly exchange tips on seedling soil, planting pots, grow lights, and heating mats."
Across China, a subtle yet remarkable lifestyle shift is unfolding on millions of high-rise balconies, which are typically enclosed or semi-enclosed, most spanning 2 to 5 square meters. As the country's urban population exceeds 900 million, a growing number of apartment dwellers are turning their balconies, long used for laundry, storage or drying produce, into compact home farms.
This time, they are armed with smart gadgets and specialized seeds.
NEW CONSUMER SECTOR EMERGES
Once a marginal pastime, balcony gardening has evolved into a booming consumer sector combining household horticulture and modern farming. From Bluetooth-enabled watering timers to compactly bred dwarf fruit trees, a full-fledged supporting industry has taken shape to serve space-limited city residents longing for greenery.
In Cixi, a city in Zhejiang known for its gardening tool manufacturing, a string of new home-farming equipment supply chains has emerged.
According to Fang Yana, sales manager at the Yidong Electronics Co., Ltd., the firm has developed a smart irrigation timer that solves the problem of irregular watering.
She explained that users can preset watering schedules before leaving for work, travel, or business trips, and the device will water plants automatically, a feature that has become particularly popular among busy office workers.
Rong Xin, sales manager at Tianshuo Industry and Trade Co., Ltd., showcased the company's multi-purpose spray nozzle tailored for home gardening use.
"We are simulating a typical balcony use scenario here," she noted. "By adjusting the spray angle, a single set can cover the entire balcony area. Different plants require varying water volumes. With three functions -- misting, drip irrigation and spraying -- you can water each plant precisely."
The product has found a ready market not only in first-tier cities like Beijing and Shanghai but also overseas, with annual exports hitting roughly 500,000 units, according to Rong.
Looking ahead, manufacturers in Cixi are exploring ways to embed Bluetooth modules into small gardening devices, bringing balcony farm management under convenient fingertip remote control.
WHAT IS BEHIND THE TREND
For many, balcony gardening serves as a soothing escape from fast-paced urban routines. Sowing seeds, watering crops, and waiting for harvest deliver slow, repetitive physical fulfillment, a rare experience amid screen-heavy work and instant delivery culture.
"It's therapeutic," said Mr. Ma, a businessman from Chengdu, southwest China's Sichuan Province, who started growing cucumbers on his balcony last year. "Watering plants late at night calms my mind in a way scrolling on my phone never could."
The trend is also shaped by broader policy directions. The Chinese government has long promoted urban greening and sustainable lifestyles. In recent years, agricultural authorities have encouraged the development of "urban agriculture" and "household horticulture" as part of a push to bring food production closer to consumers, shorten food supply distances, and enhance urban quality of life.
Local governments have eased restrictions on balcony usage, while residential communities actively advocate balcony planting as a healthy green lifestyle.
In addition, the concept of "modern agriculture" has been increasingly linked with people's daily lives. The smart gardening devices and dwarf fruit trees now available are direct results of agri-tech innovation, a sector strongly backed by government research funding and industrial policies.
On the balcony of Zhao Yanhong, a resident of Wucheng County in east China's Shandong Province, a potted blueberry plant more than one meter tall stands out.
"I spent about 100 yuan (about 14.63 U.S. dollars) on this sapling," said Zhao. "I was a bit worried at first, but now it's already blooming and fruiting. I'm really happy."
The blueberry plant from a local ecological farm was grown using a soilless substrate, a precisely mixed blend of peat, coconut coir, and perlite.
According to Dong Hongwei, who runs the farm, this method allows the plant to grow three to five times faster than traditional soil-based cultivation.
Dong said their farm has built a complete industrial chain for potted blueberries, producing more than 20,000 potted saplings a year.
FROM HOBBY GROWER TO FARM ENTREPRENEUR
For some enthusiasts, the balcony is just the beginning. Li Haibo, a former software engineer in Hangzhou, built a small hydroponic system on his balcony a decade ago with PVC pipes, a water pump and ceramic beads, and grew lush greens that amazed his neighbors.
Today, Li runs a 30-mu (2-hectare) farm in Anji County in Zhejiang Province, with 21 standardized greenhouses. He has developed customized nutrient formulas for soilless strawberry and tomato cultivation, supplying fresh produce to local fruit shops through direct orders.
"The balcony was my starting point," Li said. "My ultimate goal is to deliver safe, reliable farm products consumers can fully trust."
For ordinary urban residents across China, this small patch of home greenery reshapes not only daily diets, but also people's way of life. ■
This photo taken in July 2025 shows a kid picking a cucumber at a balcony in Chengdu, southwest China's Sichuan Province. (Photo by Xie Yuqun/Xinhua)
