Just recently, loads of netizens started posting on social media saying they could order and rent veggie patches through the Hema app—and they jokingly called it a “real-life QQ Farm”. The buzz got pretty big.
On May 28, our team checked the Hema app and found that the platform had rolled out two sizes of “Shanghai Shared Garden” in Shanghai. One plot is 20 square meters and goes for 1,298 yuan a year, and the other is 30 square meters at 1,598 yuan.
The product page shows these plots are located at Luhai Farm in Xinfeng Village, Zhonggu Town, Qingpu District, Shanghai. Once you buy, you get a one-year usage right—including naming rights, planting and harvesting rights, and management rights. For the user, the garden yields enough veggies for your own kitchen, and you can experience the whole farming process from sowing and watering to fertilizing and harvesting.
Beyond Shanghai, we also checked the Hema app for “Shared Garden” in Beijing and Shenzhen—neither city has launched the program yet.
Regarding the rollout scope, Hema customer service told us the project is still in a small-scale trial phase. The cities and stores where it becomes available will expand gradually based on conditions. The service explained it’s all about letting folks experience the joy of farming firsthand and promoting a natural, sustainable growing lifestyle. They say the experience will keep getting better.
According to the Beijing Business Today, a Hema spokesperson said the Shanghai shared garden planting service just went live this month. Customers can either plant themselves or let the base handle it. The deal includes a one-year garden usage right and all the harvest from your plot.
By the way, Hema has previously offered adoption programs for sweet potato fields, peach trees, Wuchang rice, and small cherries. This is both an extension and exploration of the adoption farming model and a try at riding the experience economy wave.
Regionally speaking, besides Shanghai, cities like Jinan, Chengdu, Hangzhou, Zhuhai, and Foshan have also seen a “shared garden” craze this year. The model is pretty much the same: villages or farms divide land into small plots and rent them to city dwellers. Tenants can choose from single-service, half-care, or full-care plans, with different prices for each.
Shared gardens are basically idle farmland on the outskirts or in rural areas that’s rented or adopted out to city folks for planting fun, relaxation, and getting healthy veggies. This real-life “Happy Farm” is pulling in urbanites who crave a natural, healthy lifestyle.
According to earlier reports, the “Shared Garden” at Longxin Agricultural Tourism Ecological Park in Zhuantang Street, Xihu District, Hangzhou, sees about 300–400 visitors on weekdays and 800–1,000 on weekends. The person in charge said all 408 plots were rented out within 20 days, giving tenants year-round veggie freedom.
But when it comes to profitability, most shared gardens “can’t survive more than three years.” An industry insider said you need to know agricultural tech, cultural tourism operations, customer service, and risk management. In recent years, while many cities have opened new shared gardens, quite a few have quietly shut down.
Some analysts believe Hema’s “dip” into shared gardens is essentially using standardization and digitalization to turn adoption farming into a new retail value-added service—short-term profits from experiences, long-term strengthening of the supply chain and user loyalty. But the key to success will be balancing price with experience and nailing the profit model.
On May 20, Alibaba’s annual report disclosed that for fiscal year 2026 (April 1, 2025 to March 31, 2026), Hema’s overall GMV exceeded 107 billion yuan, and it posted positive adjusted EBITA for the second consecutive year. As of the end of fiscal 2026, Hema Fresh had over 490 stores, the budget community supermarket “Chaohesuan NB” had nearly 500 stores, and online transactions contributed more than 60% of GMV.
Earlier reports said that according to expansion plans, Hema Fresh intends to add nearly 100 new stores in 2026, aiming for a total of over 500, covering more than 50 new cities. Chaohesuan NB will add over 200 new stores, covering more than 300 counties, with South China as the core expansion area—100 stores planned there, targeting a total of over 600 stores for the year.
