China, a nation that majorly officially remains an atheist state, recognizes four religions such as Buddhism, Taoism, Christianity, and Islam.

But in the post Covid-19 phase and following the lifting of the draconian ‘Zero Covid’ approach, Chinese people, especially youth seem to be in no mood to follow the ruling Communist establishment’s dictates on religion and ritualism, reports epardafas.

As rising number of disillusioned Chinese youth, despite having Marxist education and being taught to lead an atheist life, on account of the country’s deteriorating economic health and rising unemployment graph in the country, are thronging Buddhist and Taoist temples with incense sticks in their hands to pray for blessings in securing jobs, getting into good schools, or becoming rich, the news portal reported.

According to travel platform Trip.com, bookings for temples witnessed a 310% jump from the start of 2023. On Baidu, China’s prominent search engine, ‘temples’ have been the most searched topic, hitting 586% from January 1 to March 16, 2023.  And most of those who search temples on Baidu are young men aged between 18 and 30, South China Morning Post said as quoted by epardafas.

The Hong Kong-based English daily newspaper said temple-hopping has become a “trendy activity” for young people as they are desperate for good jobs and want their life pressures to ease.

As per official statistics, the unemployment rate in China for people between 16 and 24 years old reached a record 20.4% in April, 2023. That means, 6 million young people living in cities and towns are without any job in China, Bloomberg News said..