Changyang man returns home to start a business, leading his fellow villagers to prosperity together

On the afternoon of the 22nd, Qin Yufeng of Xiping Village, Yuxiakou Town, Changyang, went to the fields to check the growth of "cucumber plums." With nearly half a month still to go before the plums ripen, more than 5,000 jin of plums grown by the villagers had already been mostly sold by him through an "Internet Plus" approach. Locally, the story of this 40-year-old man returning home to start a business and lead his fellow villagers to prosperity has become a much-told tale.

Qin Yufeng, born in 1976, began to "venture out into society" at 16 before finishing junior high school. After learning the craft of tailoring, he went to Beijing to work. In 2005, he borrowed more than 100,000 yuan and founded a high-end leather garment factory in Beijing. Through the hard work of him and his wife, the garment factory has reached a certain scale, and the business has gradually stabilized.

In the second half of 2015, Qin Yufeng returned home to start a business and lead the villagers to prosperity. His hometown, Xiping Village, lies by the Qingjiang River. This area is rich in Qingjiang Lunwan oranges, ponkan mandarins, native eggs and the locally unique "cucumber plums," but due to inconvenient transportation and information, these things could not fetch a good price. After returning home, Qin Yufeng founded a cooperative together with several local impoverished households. After purchasing the villagers' various local specialties, he sold them through his own channels: after Lunwan oranges hit the market in 2016, he sold nearly 40,000 jin through his own WeChat Moments, earning more than 100,000 yuan in income. "If sold to a purchasing dealer, that would have meant more than 50,000 yuan less in income."

With the "cucumber plum" harvest season approaching, Qin Yufeng once again used the same model as for selling Lunwan oranges, selling plums through an "Internet Plus" approach. Within one week, he had received more than 200 orders, with total orders reaching more than 3,000 jin. "The whole village's 'cucumber plum' output is only more than 5,000 jin. It is estimated that they can all be sold before the plums ripen."

According to Qin Yufeng's plan, in the future he will also build ecological wooden cabins in the village, develop rural leisure tourism, and lead all the villagers to prosperity.