Zhihu users map out 2024 with family, work, travel
Zhihu users shared 2024 hopes centered on health, work, money, study, and trips to Harbin, Xinjiang, and Kunming.
Zhihu users shared 2024 hopes centered on health, work, money, study, and travel.
A Zhihu thread asking what people expect, plan, and must do in 2024 drew dozens of answers that read like a public mood board for the year ahead. Across the responses, the same themes keep coming back: family health, steadier income, better jobs, and a few trips people have been postponing.
The question itself is simple, but the answers are specific. One user wants China’s economy to recover and real estate to stabilize; another wants to pass the bar and become a practicing lawyer; others are focused on graduate school, freelancing, or just keeping their families safe and healthy.
| Theme | Examples from the thread | What it signals |
|---|---|---|
| Health and family | Safe, healthy parents; better mood; less stress | Personal stability matters more than big ambitions |
| Work and money | Find a job, start a project, become a freelancer, pass the bar | Income security is the main practical goal |
| Study and self-improvement | Read two books a month, write five days a week, prep for graduate school | People are treating 2024 like a reset year |
| Travel | Harbin, Xinjiang, Kunming, Serbia, Huangshan | Travel is still tied to recovery and reward |
Health and stability beat big promises
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The most repeated wish in the thread is plain and human: keep family members healthy, safe, and emotionally steady. That shows up in answers from parents, students, freelancers, and professionals alike, which tells you something about how people were thinking at the end of 2023. Before talking about growth, they wanted less pressure.
One answer put it bluntly: “I hope our country can overcome its economic difficulties, and let everyone see hope.” That same answer asks for a calmer society, one that is “a bit less harsh and more tolerant.” Another user says the most basic wish is that every family member stays safe and healthy in 2024.
“The most basic wish is that everyone in my family can be safe and healthy in 2024.”
— Zhihu user DTk3O2
That quote captures the thread better than any polished summary could. The people answering are not writing vision statements. They are naming the conditions that make every other goal possible: health, money, time, and a little room to breathe.
Work goals are practical, not glamorous
Many of the plans are tied to work and income, and they are refreshingly concrete. One user wants to become a practicing lawyer after finishing an internship year in Suzhou. Another wants to start a project in Zhengzhou after shifting from a technical mindset to a business mindset. A different user is focused on becoming a self-sufficient freelancer.
Those goals are specific because the risk is specific. If your rent, family obligations, or future plans depend on stable cash flow, “do better at work” is too vague to be useful. A better plan is to pass the exam, launch the project, or build a client base one week at a time.
- Write at least five days a week
- Read at least two books a month
- Exercise three times a week for more than an hour
- Build one hobby or learn one new skill
One answer even turns planning into a system: 50-year planning, 25-year monthly goals, weekly adjustments, and daily reviews. That sounds intense, but it also reflects a very modern instinct. People want structure they can actually keep, not a burst of motivation that disappears by February.
Travel plans show where people want a reset
The travel answers are interesting because they are not luxury fantasies. They are tied to mood, recovery, and life milestones. Harbin and Xinjiang appear in one response, Kunming in another, and several people mention places connected to nature, mountains, or calm. One user wants to go to Serbia and says the city was so beautiful it felt unforgettable. Another wants to climb Huangshan, Wuyi Mountain, and Jiuhua Mountain.
Travel, in this thread, is less about status and more about proof that life can still expand. After a rough year, people seem to want cold weather, mountain air, open space, or a city they have only seen in photos.
- Harbin for winter travel
- Xinjiang for wide-open scenery
- Kunming for a job change and a new start
- Serbia for a long-awaited overseas trip
That list is useful because it shows how personal geography is. For one person, a trip means a reward after saving enough for a dowry. For another, it means taking parents to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. For someone else, it means finally seeing a place that once felt out of reach.
What this thread says about 2024
This Zhihu thread is a small sample, but the pattern is hard to miss. People are planning around uncertainty, and they are doing it with unusually clear priorities: keep the family healthy, get the job or credential, build a routine, and leave room for a trip if money and time allow.
If you want a sharper read on the year, this thread gives it: 2024 is being treated as a year for repair, not performance. The question for anyone making their own plan is simple: what is the one habit, credential, or trip that would make the year feel real by December?
And if you are still writing your own list, start with the thing that changes the rest. For some people that is health. For others it is income, a degree, or the courage to book the ticket.