Our Transition journey to Hong Kong and China

A photo reportage of Mikae Koyama and Shunro Yoshida, representatives of Transition Japan

The Journey Begins

It all started when our Partner Partnerships for Community of Development (PCD) read Hidetake Enomoto's book “If we Change ourselves, the Town Changes, If the Town Changes, the World will Change”, originally published in Traditional Chinese two years ago and then in Simplified Chinese in mainland China last year. They wanted to learn more about Japan's Transition movement.

Last year, about ten people, including staff of PCD, came to Fujino, Japan. They began Transition training, observed Japanese citizen movements, and deepened their exchange with us. When I first heard about this, I remember thinking, “Huh?! Seriously?!” I was surprised and excited at the same time.

The Purpose of our journey this year

We embarked on this journey of visiting Hong Kong and China, to share Japan's 17 years of Transition experience, and help the groups in China develop their own Transition movement or provide reference for its civic movements. Our personal goal was also to learn from China's civic movements and help Japan and China build strong, grassroots-level peace connections.

August 19, 2025, arriving to Hong Kong

We visited the Partnerships for Community Development (PCD) Office.

Hong Kong Workshop Day 1 and 2

What we did:

• Pairing up for an interview exercise to get to know each other
• Explanation of Worldview and Visioning
• Transition Timeline Exercise
• Open Space Technology Workshop

Visit to Tin Shui Yuen (Community Garden)
A relatively low-income young couple migrated from China and formed working groups (construction team, tea team, food and agriculture team, electrical team, etc.) to collaboratively build the garden. A project receiving half funding from the government.

• Introduction of Japanese food and agriculture education examples to about 30 participants.
• Hong Kong million dollar night view　
• Breakfast with Idy at Green Hub

Hong Kong Day 3, August 22 2025

Visit to Life Academy (Buddhist learning and exchange center). They also use local currency, and participants cook meals, offer laughter yoga, and provide various events. The photo shows a scene from meal preparation where they were making rice cakes.

• Explanation of the Worldview and Actual Impact of Local Currency
• Community Economy Presentation

During our stay in Hong Kong this time, we stayed at a place called Green Hub, which was a facility that served as police headquarters during the British colonial era. It's located on a small hill, surrounded by greenery, and is a very pleasant place. It seemed like Satish Kumar and Naresh Giangrande were also there.

Hong Kong Day 4, August 23

• Explanation and Case Studies of Japan's Transition Town Movement

The event on our final day in Hong Kong

This time it was open to the public, and people involved with Kaduri Farm and those participating in the PCD event came. We heard from participants that Hong Kong also lacks land for farming and that it's difficult to rent space for civic activities, but we discussed how each group manages to find creative ways to carry out their activities.

We were also just having Fun! A Big Bite of a vegetarian hamburger!

Moving from Hong Kong to Chengdu

Cityscape of Chengdu. Chengdu is a suburban-style city located within Sichuan Province, apparently a popular destination in China recently. For a Chinese city, it has a relaxed atmosphere, with vibrant civic activities and community life. It's famous for pandas and Sichuan cuisine.

August 25: Observing Community Activities in Chengdu

Dongfang Yijing Residential Community: We visited this apartment community in Chengdu, home to 204 households, which has practiced self-governance for 19 years. We went to hear about their initiative to cut ties with management, cleaning, and security companies, taking over management and cleaning themselves. Management fees collected from residents funded volunteers who transformed shared spaces into beautiful biotopes and gardens. Through various connections, they obtained scrap materials, processed them for reuse, and gradually became skilled enough to even sell their creations. Funds previously paid to management companies were redirected to their activities, generating profits. Recently, they consistently operate in the black and return surplus funds to residents—a truly remarkable initiative.

August 26, Chengdu

Visit to a Natural Farming CSA Farmer in Anlong Village
This was a unique farm run by a professor from Sichuan University who studies the relationship between microorganisms and soil while growing crops. Though many farms once existed in this village, government policies led most farmers to relocate to cities. This farm is one of only four remaining. Here, a couple, volunteers, and a Sichuan University professor cultivate crops and deliver produce to members in Chengdu's urban areas who have signed contracts. Sichuan is famous for doubanjiang (chili bean paste), and this farm also produces and sells organic doubanjiang.

August 27-29: Transition Workshop at Mountain Nature School

1st day Program:

• My Story workshop
• The work that reconnects
• Mirror walk
• Inner Transition
• Visioning: Timeline workshop

2nd day Program:

• Why local currency
• World view of local currency
• Fujino and Minami Aso’s local currency
• 'Give you give me' game (Local currency game)
• Group activity from 'give you give me' game

3rd day Program:

• Open Space Technology workshop

My offering: Making Japanese noodle for everyone
Mikae’s entertainment: Serving Macha green tea for everyone during OST

Last Day in Chengdu

Transition Information Session at a Wonderful Bookstore:

Good Bye Chengdu!

What we learned from this trip

• We met very good citizen’s movement of climate change and environmental groups.
• Chinese people are interested in the Transition movement in Japan, and they seem to have familiarity with Japan’s Transition movement.
• What we tried to deliver was Transition culture which we cultivated in Japan for the last 17 years.
• There are more commonalities than differences between Japanese and Chinese civic movements.
• Although it is not easy to have citizen’s movement in China and Hong Kong, they are doing it in a straight forward way and very patiently, which I respect the most.
• I think we are building good relationship with Chinese citizen’s movement groups and we want to keep it going.
• The Transition book which Hide Enomoto wrote published in Chinese is a very big impact for Chinese speaking countries.

Shunro Yoshida
Mikae Koyama
Transition Japan