Francois Racette has been living in China with his wife and two kids for five years. Other than big cities, the family chooses to live in a small county in Zhejiang province called Kaihua, where the Canadian started his business of raising freshwater fish, the local specialty of Kaihua.

After sending the kids to school in the morning, Racette and his wife would drive 40 minutes to the farm they run in the village. On the farm, they keep freshwater fish, chickens, geese, goats, and two turkeys for Thanksgiving. They look after the animals during the day and bring some agricultural products back downtown in the evening and sell them in the store they own.

If it were five years ago, Racette might have not imagined he would be having this kind of life.

Before coming to China, the couple had spent 11 years in Canada.

Life in Kaihua is totally different. The pace is slow and they are more involved in nature.

"Kaihua is a close to nature city and my kids just love to be in the nature. That's why I enjoy living here," he said.

"To be honest, I miss the big city feel sometimes, but we really had an enjoyable five years here in Kaihua." 

Editor: Ye Ke