Far from the madding crowd in Shanghai

Chongming island attracts residents tired of urban grind and seeking a life closer to nature

While millions of Chinese farmers are flooding into big cities in search of a better life, some Shanghai residents are going the other way: ditching their office jobs to live more of a pastoral existence in the boondocks.

Hou Xueying, a former financing manager at a Japanese fashion company, quit her job in 2010 and rented some land in Chongming, China's third-largest island that lies at the mouth of the Yangtze River. It ranks as a county under Shanghai's jurisdiction, and is now starting to push eco-friendly agriculture.