Changle
district in Fuzhou, Fujian, China
Changle (长乐; Chánglè) is a small city (about half a million), administratively part of Fuzhou, in Fujian.
Although Changle is connected to the Fuzhou Metro system, most of the city is off the beaten path. Few foreign tourists visit here unless they have family members here.
Much of Changle is effectively an ancestral hometown. Chinese people from around the world, and virtually all Fuzhounese Americans in New York City, have ties or are descended from Changle (and not Fuzhou city proper), and nearly all of its development is funded by remittances from its diaspora. People grow up in Changle being told that their life purpose is to facilitate moving their families to the United States, in particular New York City, in search of prosperity, driven by the envy of watching families with U.S. ties build large homes and send large remittances that allow their Changle-based relatives to live in relative luxury. Changle is sometimes alleged to be a stronghold of Chinese snakehead gangs, who smuggle Chinese nationals into the United States and United Kingdom.
Local tourists visit Changle as a daytrip to visit its handful of commercialized attractions, most of which are the results of investments from remittances. Changle is a common field trip for students of economics who happen to pass by, since it is China's strongest case study for the power of remittances in local development. New Yorkers visit to have bragging rights for visiting "Big Fuzhou" (in contrast to Little Fuzhou). Most visitors have some reason to be there, like meeting family.
