Emerging professions gain popularity among young people

Before the 2026 New Year's Day holiday, Huang Yan turned to a second-hand trading platform to look for a pet sitter. She clearly listed her requirements: home visits to feed her cat, change its water, clean the litter box and provide video updates on the cat's condition.

With many pet owners traveling or taking frequent business trips, demand for services such as dog walking, pet feeding and pet boarding continues to rise.

Liu Shuo has been working as a pet sitter for over three years. "The Spring Festival, or the Chinese New Year, is the busiest time. I leave home at 6 a.m. and often don't return until late at night," she said. She calls it her dream job because of the emotional rewards from spending time with animals, the flexible hours and the relatively high pay.

Flexible working arrangements, the chance to turn hobbies into careers, and opportunities to realize personal value are key reasons young people are drawn to emerging occupations.

As China expands its visa-free policies, inbound tourism has grown significantly, creating new job opportunities. Some young people have become travel planners, offering overseas visitors customized itineraries and immersive experiences.

Wang Zi is one such planner. He designs tailored birdwatching routes based on tourists' interests and leads wildlife exploration trips.

Last February, he guided a French couple to northwest China's Qinghai Province. As passionate wildlife enthusiasts, they hoped to see snow leopards, Pallas's cats, Chinese desert cats and lynxes. During their 16-day journey, they spotted three of the four species. The couple told Wang that this was their fourth overseas trip in search of snow leopards. Previous attempts had failed, but this time in China, they not only saw them but also managed to photograph them.

In late 2023, Liu Hao, who had lost weight through regular exercise, hiked Mount Tai in east China's Shandong Province with friends and realized how strong his stamina had become. "I reached the summit easily and even helped my friends climb," he said. That experience gave him the idea that he could turn mountain climbing into a paid service.

Liu Hao (right) poses for a picture with tourists on Mount Tai in east China's Shandong Province.  (China Youth Daily/courtesy of the interviewee)

At the start of 2024, Liu Hao began offering paid hiking companionship services on Mount Tai. He hikes with tourists, shares the mountain's history, encourages them when they tire, and provides physical support when needed.

From May to October, Mount Tai enters peak tourist season. At his busiest, Liu Hao makes up to four round trips to the summit in a single day. He enjoys the freedom of the work. Once a corporate employee tied to a nine-to-five schedule, he now finds his life far more fulfilling.

Li Yi (a pseudonym) joined a major internet company after graduating from university. Today, she works full time as a companion. Her services range from playing popular online games to simply chatting with clients. Casual conversation typically costs 50 yuan ($7.13) per hour. At peak times, she handles more than a dozen orders a day, with her highest monthly income reaching nearly 20,000 yuan.

Shen Xiaofen operates a drone in a field. (China Youth Daily/courtesy of the interviewee)

Shen Xiaofen is among the first certified female agricultural machinery operators in Zengcheng, a predominantly rural district of Guangzhou, south China's Guangdong Province.

After graduating from college in 2019, she returned to her hometown to work in agricultural drone services, driven by her confidence in rural development. She believes the countryside holds vast potential, and that personal value can be realized by seizing opportunities and daring to take a chance.

A single agricultural drone can treat hundreds of mu (1 mu is about 0.067 hectares) of farmland per day, improving efficiency while reducing labor and costs. Shen recalled a farmer who switched to rice cultivation without sufficient experience, resulting in low yields across more than 100 mu of land. After he entrusted his fields to Shen, she employed data-driven management to precisely time spraying, fertilizing and sowing, thereby boosting rice yields to approximately 400 kilograms per mu.

To meet the growing demand for more personalized elderly care, some young people have trained as age-friendly home renovation assessors. Their work involves closely observing the daily habits and routines of older adults. One age-friendly home renovation assessor, Xiao Xuedan, born after 1985, said, "We need to address not only physical needs, but also emotional ones."

One case that left a deep impression involved an elderly couple in their 80s. The husband had lost a leg and an arm in an accident and depended entirely on his wife for daily care. After the renovation, he was able to bathe and move independently using a shower chair and handrails. Realizing he could manage on his own, he smiled with relief and pride. His wife, however, burst into tears. "I never knew there were solutions like this. I thought I was close to giving up. Now, I see hope again."