The municipality of Taizhou sits on Zhejiang's east coast, about two hours by bus north of Wenzhou. Taizhou is a prefectural-level city, a status below the provincial level but above the county level. Because of the particularities of China's administrative structure, Wenling, a county-level city, falls under Taizhou's jurisdiction. With a population of approximately 1.16 million people (as of 2006), Wenling is a large city in its own right, and one of China's most densely populated; indeed, it used to be independent of Taizhou, merging with the larger city only in 1994. Wenling is made up of eleven townships and five neighborhood associations. Its rural population is 971,000, whereas its urban population is 186,000 (though observation suggests that the number of those actually making a living from agriculture and fishing is considerably less than these figures would suggest, based on household registration).

As part of the southern Zhejiang area, Wenling has much in common with Wenzhou to its south. Like Wenzhou, it was in a front-line area likely to be engulfed in any confrontation across the Taiwan Straits, and thus was deprived of central state investment. Also like Wenzhou, Wenling has a long commercial tradition and a lively religious life, including a very visible Christian presence. It is not clear that religion plays a role in any of the experiments described below, though some argue that the religious influence embodies an egalitarian ethos. It is also a city with high mobility. Of its 1.16 million residents, some 200,000 live away from the city on a long-term basis. Another 500,000 residents have migrated from elsewhere, attracted by the factories and other economic opportunities in the city. In 2006, the urban population of Wenling earned an average of 12,651 yuan per year, whereas the rural population made 6,229 yuan per year, making Wenling one of the wealthiest county-level units in China.