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​The Yunhe Center in China

​​"The villagers and the mountains are
are my teachers."​
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combining holistic eco-education for young people
with regenerative economics in rural China

bridging the gap between local traditions
​and modern life, between learning and service 

nurturing a new generation of young Chinese
with ecological mindsets and practical skills

Click here for Yunhe Center website.

Introduction to The Yunhe Center

Education for 
​Head, Hands, and Heart

The Yunhe Centre and the Living Earth

The Yunhe Centre is a for-profit educational organization in China with three aims:
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1. To create Healthy Economies in Rural Settings: To assist in the creation of regenerative economies in rural areas near conservation sites in China, helping these communities celebrate and leverage the knowledge and wisdom of their traditional practices, through learning events and eco-tourism.
2. To offer Holistic Education for Youth: To sponsor workshops and learning series in these communities, introducing young people across China to the principles of sustainable living, the wisdom of local elders in village settings, and the emotional, intellectual, and spiritual nourishment that arises from knowing the natural world and living in harmony with nature.
3. To develop Innovation Hubs for New Ideas: To create "gathering places" that bring together people in local communities, environmental educators, artists, scholars, and social innovators who share a passion for fostering a sustainable relationship with the Earth, envisioning an ecological civilization, and building a better world.

The Yunhe Centre is not one center, but rather several. Its first centre was founded in 2015 in Danba County, Sichuan. Building upon its success, they recently opened a second centre in 2023 in Xiaojin County, known for its scenic high plateau rose fields and the presence of the Giant Panda National Park.

The philosophy of the Yunhe Center mirrors the philosophy of the Living Earth movement and Process-Relational thinking. It sees the earth itself as a living organism filled with myriad forms of life, of which human beings are a part. It encourages the develop of whole persons and whole communities, including attention to the economic, social, cultural and spiritual sides of life. It thinks in terms of glocalization: that is, an integration of global and local thinking. Indeed it embodies and puts into practice the four hopes, or aspirational ideals, of the process movement: whole persons, whole communities, a whole planet, and holistic thinking. 

Experiential Education

Through its workshops and programs for youth, the center prioritizes education that encompasses the whole of the individual: mind, body, and spirit, or head, hands, and heart. Thus it embodies the spirit of engaged or experiential education. It simultaneously highlights the importance of empathy and people's responsibilities to one another, fostering the creation of caring communities as well as care for the earth. And, of course, it encourages a sense of partnership with, and responsibilities to, other forms of life. Moreover, the center places these concerns within the broader context of the intricate web of life, acknowledging the living Earth from which all life emerges. In so doing the Yunhe Center expands the notion of "teacher" beyond images of a person in a classroom. If we are youth at a Yunhe workshop, our "teachers" are other people, plants and animals, hills and rivers, local villagers, gardens and community centers - and our own imaginations, as nourished by relationships with them.

Yunhe Centre Locations (so far)
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Villages around the Giant
Panda National Park

Project of the Yunhe Centre
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"Can human find an economic model that mutually benefit with the environment? In the recent "Panda and Rose, Transition Economy Research Camp", A group of high school students from across China came to visit communities within and around the Giant Panda National Park. They made interviews, observations, desktop research, inquiring the topic about ecosystem service-based economic model. This is their story."