In 2023, I decided to go to the temple for a vacation

In the first spring after the epidemic, people could no longer hold back their desire for freedom. What is different from the past is that in addition to regular international and domestic travel, some young people have become fascinated with temple tours. The author of this article analyzes the reasons behind this and the "creativity" of the temples.

“In 2023, there will be no weird business.”

"It rains a lot during the Qingming Festival, I want to go to the temple. I will try to spend the Qingming holiday in the temple. Arrange it now! Right now!" After browsing Xiaohongshu all night, Xinxin, a post-90s, slammed the table and told her friends in the WeChat group. It has long been a habit for travel expert Xinxin to go out and have fun during the short holiday, but it is her first time to visit a temple.

In the first spring after the epidemic, people could no longer hold back their desire for freedom and wanted to go to "windy places". What is different from the past is that in addition to regular international and domestic tours, some young people have become fascinated by temple tours.

Ctrip data shows that the number of ticket orders for temple-related scenic spots has increased by 310% year-on-year this year. In terms of search popularity, the temples and scenic spots that have received more attention recently are: Lingyin Temple in Hangzhou, Putuo Mountain Scenic Area, Suzhou Hanshan Temple, and Beijing Lama Temple.

It is worth noting that it is not just the middle-aged and elderly people who are keen on temple tours in traditional concepts, but young people account for half of the market. According to Ctrip data, among those who booked tickets for temple scenic spots since February this year, those born in the 1990s and 2000s accounted for nearly 50%.

Buddhist young people are becoming the main force of temple tours.

In addition to temple tours, young people are also experiencing the temple atmosphere in various ways: a cup of temple coffee, a vegetarian meal, a string of prayer beads... Temples that were once not in the eyes of young people are now flocking to them among working people.

Why do temples attract young people? Is it for a drink? Or for a vacation? In today's post, let's talk about the temple economy and the stories behind it.

1. Escape to the Temple

There is no such thing as a peaceful life, it's just that someone is carrying the burden for you.

In real life, most young people have to move forward alone. They yearn for a peaceful life, and even if it is just a short escape from the high-pressure life in the city, it is a blessing to be able to take a break.

This is also the reason why Xinxin wanted to try temple meditation: "Between making progress and going to work, I choose to burn incense."

"The work intensity is really high now. The KPI is hanging over my head every day like the sword of Damocles, and I am numb to overwork. As soon as I get off work, I really don't want to stay in the CBD for even a minute. I like traveling, to a certain extent, it is also to escape from the city. As I said, escaping is shameful but useful." Xinxin said.

Although Xinxin calls it a "vacation", temple meditation is undoubtedly different from traditional vacations.

"To be honest, when I traveled before, I had a lot of 'idol baggage', that is, I had to take beautiful photos to post on WeChat Moments. So I spent a lot of time on makeup, dressing up, and taking photos during the trip. But when staying in a temple, I may not even touch my mobile phone, let alone other personal belongings. So, living in a temple for a while can be said to be a real immersive vacation."

At present, many temples in Zhejiang, Hebei, Fujian and other places have opened meditation camps. Meditation camps are mainly short-term practice activities in temples for the general public, integrating traditional Chinese culture, health and wellness, life aesthetics and other contents, and using natural traditional methods such as meditation, contemplation, and labor to achieve the effect of self-emptying and soothing the mind.

In sharp contrast to the hustle and bustle of urban life, the Buddhist life in the temple is full of simplicity. From the perspective of the environment, the temple is far away from the bright lights and women, creating a natural, peaceful and tranquil magnetic field. Intoxicated in the bamboo forest in the mountains, with every breath, the worries, fatigue and pain in the heart can be reduced.

Photo by New Retail Business Review

The meditation camp, which can accommodate dozens of people, is always in short supply as soon as the registration channel opens. Anxious young people who have suffered from heartbreak or lost their jobs come in droves in search of inner peace.

The winding path leads to a secluded place, where the Zen room is surrounded by flowers and trees. On major online platforms, many young people who have fled to the temples share their spiritual purification journeys. One of the more famous projects is called "Seven Days of Silent Meditation".

According to the description of the students who participated in the seven-day silent meditation activity in a certain temple, the focus of life during the week was the word "meditation". In sharp contrast to the "spiritual exhaustion" of working in the city, meditation emphasizes the cultivation of spirit and mind, ensuring mental clarity, lifting the waist and tightening the abdomen, and boosting the spirit.

"During the meditation period, I woke up at 5:00 every day and went to bed at 9:30 every night, as if I had returned to the rhythm of the ancients who worked at sunrise and rested at sunset. Regarding meditation, at the beginning, my legs were numb, my spine was painful, and my shoulders were sore every day when I meditated. I couldn't sit still at all. ... After closing my eyes, I found that my thoughts were flying around like monkeys jumping up and down, and I couldn't pay attention to my breathing. In the middle stage, I gradually adapted to it, and I looked forward to meditation every day, and I found that I was making progress again and again.

In the end, I have completely adapted to this rhythm. Every day, except for eating and sleeping, I am in the meditation hall. I will cherish and take every opportunity to meditate seriously. "

"During the meditation process, we must keep silent. The way to communicate is to write notes and put them in a box. Every morning and afternoon before the meditation begins, there is a 'note question and answer time' for the master. In addition to meditation, every day I stroll around the temple, whether it is cloudy, sunny or rainy, watching the clouds, rain, trees, flowers, insects and stars. I enjoy the feeling of being connected to nature and to myself."

Young people release their souls in temples, and temples also release vitality in young people.

2. Decompressing the economy

There is no word "easy" in the adult world.

Young people flock to temples for a spiritual break, and the reason is obvious: stress.

On World Mental Health Day, October 10, 2022, Bilibili released the "2022 Bilibili Youth Mental Health Report", which showed that in the past year, about 97.76 million people learned about mental health knowledge on Bilibili, 76% of whom were young people under the age of 24. The number of views of mental health-related videos on the site exceeded 7.6 billion times, an increase of 83% year-on-year, and the number of searches for psychological-related terms such as "anxiety", "depression" and "stress" reached 99.3 million.

Coincidentally, Tmall New Life Research Institute stated that in 2022, the overall sales growth rate of decompression toys on Taobao Tmall was nearly 40%.

Under the heavy burden of life, the demand for decompression has increased sharply, giving rise to the decompression economy. The meditation camp has some public welfare attributes, but it also symbolizes a certain degree of decompression economy.

Your stress, my business.

In fact, the decompression economy has long been integrated into every aspect of our daily lives. Based on the analysis of offline decompression and relaxation consumption data, Meituan released the "Top Ten New Decompression Businesses in 2022", including archery, Muay Thai, land surfing, petting cats and dogs, etc.

In addition, "emotional venting rooms" have appeared in some cities. A comprehensive experience hall in Xiamen has set up a "Fantasy Decompression Hall" theme, with adult tickets starting at 70 yuan, and multiple scenes set up inside.

For example, in the emotional venting room, citizens wearing protective clothing can smash wine bottles to release their pent-up emotions; in the small shouting room, they can scream wildly, and they can also treat the yellow ducks displayed on the walls as imaginary enemies, pinching them at will and screaming loudly.

Scream House, Photo by New Retail Business Review

As a small indoor recreational project, the decompression center has a certain market demand in the current environment where young people seek emotional value. However, the decompression economy such as temple meditation and decompression center also has its own natural shortcomings.

Most of the decompression economy is an immersive experience project. Many people participate in activities to enjoy a sense of "experience". After the first experience, whether they will repurchase needs to be marked with a big question mark.

For example, although there are many people who rave about meditation camps, it is not practical to ask them to spend all of their limited vacation time practicing in temples.

For example, workers who are upset will go to a decompression center to vent their emotions, but if they go to the same environment for the second time, it will be difficult to arouse consumers' freshness. Therefore, businesses need to constantly change new scenes. This reminds people of the script-killing games that were once popular among young people. With the same low repurchase rate and low turnover rate, the script-killing games that have passed the peak are gradually covered with dust.

Will history repeat itself in the Jiezao Pavilion? It will take time to tell.

3. Temple Coffee

Some young people choose to go to temples for vacation, but what about the other young people who have even seen vacations as a luxury? So, between involution and lying down, young people choose to go to temples to drink coffee.

Monks sell coffee and people drink latte in temples.

This somewhat odd combination of Chinese and Western elements would have been easily criticized by the public in the past.

As early as 2012, Starbucks had settled in the area around Lingyin Temple and introduced a "great compassion" slogan when customers ordered, which also caused many netizens to complain. Last year, due to the expiration of the lease, this Starbucks officially bid farewell to the Lingyin scenic area.

Soon after, Cibei Coffee in Yongfu Temple in Hangzhou suddenly became popular on social media with the tag "monks selling coffee". The standard configuration of temple coffee is that monks wearing robes work as shop assistants and make a cup of "ancient style coffee" for customers.

"Cibei" is a homophone of "compassion". The Buddhist concept of compassion is that "compassion brings joy, compassion relieves suffering", which is a perfect match for the bitterness of coffee. "Are you moderately compassionate, highly compassionate, or extremely compassionate today?" has become a famous meme.

How popular is Yongfu Temple? The temple's masters have advised the media not to report on it anymore, and just let customers check in as they please. The popularity of Yongfu Temple has led other temples to follow suit, including Shanghai Jade Buddha Temple, Taizhou Longxing Temple, and Xiamen Nanputuo Temple, all of which have joined the coffee-selling army.

If young people who stay in temples do so to "steal a few days of leisure from their busy lives", then those who go to temples to buy coffee are more out of curiosity. Temple coffee is very consistent with the consumption standards of contemporary young people: coffee that represents Eastern culture such as Chinese studies and Buddhism and Western cuisine forms a strong contrast, with both ancient charm and Western flavor.

Yongfu Temple Cafe is also very aware of this. By evolving the two styles to the extreme, it can better highlight the tension created by the contrast and satisfy consumers' psychology.

At Yongfu Temple, the name of each type of coffee is a Zen saying. Americano is a cup of "relieve troubles"; Latte is a cup of "stop snow"; Mocha is a cup of "joy". Yongfu Temple also put a lot of thought into the design of coffee paper cups. During the Spring Festival, the immortal pointing to the deer pattern designed by Pan Wenxun, a professor at the China Academy of Art, has both the beauty of Chinese painting and good meaning and blessings.

In response to the curiosity of young people, Cibei Coffee has been changing its own Buddhist characteristics. In Cibei Coffee, there is a coffee blind box with a very appropriate name, called "Fate", which costs 30 yuan per cup and you can drink whatever you draw.

In addition to the lottery, during the 2023 Spring Festival, Cibei Coffee also launched a limited edition cup that welcomes happiness and happiness. It has a similar lottery scratching link. As long as you open the pull ring on the cup sleeve, you can receive the temple's blessing. From getting rich overnight to making a fortune every day, every blessing touches the hearts of young people.

The Immortal Pointing at the Deer Cup (left) and the Jiefu Yingxi Cup (right), source: WeChat official account of "Cibei"

The innovation of the temple is far more than coffee. From bracelets to sachets, from canvas bags to stationery, all kinds of small gadgets that combine modern and ancient elements attract young people to pay for temple culture. For example, the canvas bag launched by Faxi Temple in cooperation with a cultural and creative company has the words "Buddha should like you, you are so great" printed on it.

Creativity creates business.

The temple’s creativity continues.

Who would have thought that the most popular tourist destination in 2023 would be a temple; the most popular coffee in 2023 would also be in a temple.

In the Jade Buddha Temple in Shanghai, the combination of coffee and bread has become coffee and Chinese dim sum; in Kunming's 5A-level scenic spot, a new meditation camp is quietly waiting for the arrival of students.

The temple economy tells us that when businesses are looking forward to new business opportunities, new business opportunities are also waiting for businesses to explore.

In 2023, there is no weird business.

Come on, tell me, would you choose to visit a temple during the holidays?

Author: Koala is a Deer

Source: WeChat public account "New Retail Business Review (ID: xinlingshou1001)"