Man Spends 20 Years Protecting Herons, Uses Up His Savings to Plant Trees, Build Houses and Pick Up Litter

Images and sources: Yitiao

ID：yitiaotv

Heron photography: Guo Dagui

Twenty years ago, Liao Quanfu, who was in the nursery stock business,

leased 30 mu of farmland near Chengdu to grow trees.

Five or six years later, the little saplings had all grown into big trees,

and it had become a veritable forest!

He had originally planned to fell the trees and sell them

to support his family,

but unexpectedly, hundreds upon hundreds of herons were drawn here to nest and roost.

Watching the beautiful herons wheel and dance among the trees and raise their young,

Liao Quanfu, wanting to give them a happy place to live,

never cut down another tree!

He said: Birds cannot speak. If I do not protect them, who will look after them?

To let the herons live and breed in this woodland without worry,

Liao Quanfu spent almost all of his savings

to create a good living environment for them.

He heard that herons need water where they roost,

so he dug ponds in the woods.

When he saw egrets that had eaten pesticide-treated crops die of poisoning,

he paid out of his own pocket to buy fish for the herons to eat!

As the herons grew in number, some people came at night to poach them,

so he would drive half an hour from the city in the dead of night to patrol the woods!

To this day, in Liao Quanfu's 30 mu of woodland, the roosting herons number as many as ten thousand,

of species including: black-crowned night heron, Chinese pond heron, little egret, cattle egret and others.

They come here in spring to lay eggs and hatch their young, and fly elsewhere in autumn to spend the winter.

In February 2017, in order to devote himself to caring for the herons,

Liao Quanfu even brought his wife and child

and made their home here!

He chose a spot in the middle of the woods and used bricks, tiles and wood discarded by others,

designing it himself and doing the construction himself,

spending two years

to build, brick by brick, a 400 sq m building in an antique style,

named "Heron Manor."

The kitchen was built with grey bricks.

These grey bricks are more than 100 years old, 

and Liao Quanfu collected them from the former residence of Li Yimang,

which was being demolished at the time, with century-old carved wooden windows and grey bricks all thrown to one side.

Liao Quanfu felt it was a pity, so he collected them and hauled them to the woods!

Because grey bricks have fairly good fire resistance,

he used them to build the kitchen.

Liao Quanfu does not draw blueprints; he simply follows traditional methods,

using a carpenter's square to measure as he built the house!

The other building, mainly used for living, has 2 floors in total

and was repaired by carpenters using wood that Liao Quanfu hired.

And this wood has quite a pedigree:

the main material is cypress wood from the Ming Dynasty,

while the windows and doors are carved wooden windows from the Qing Dynasty.

And the city wall in the courtyard

was built using grey bricks

discarded when the ancient city wall of Luocheng in Guanghan was restored.

Antique and elegant!

Not only is there a city wall,

Liao Quanfu also used the chassis and floor of a scrapped truck

to put up a covered bridge.

In summer,

，

the family sits beneath the covered bridge,

cooling off and enjoying the view.

Liao Quanfu loves nature, loves herons, and loves plants even more.

He believes every plant and tree has life

and should all be cherished!

The thousand-plus potted bonsai at Heron Manor

were all thrown away by others,

and Liao Quanfu picked them up one by one, brought them back to life and tended them with care.

Among these bonsai, the oldest is roughly 1500 years old.

Looking across the vast Heron Manor,

bricks and tiles, wood, doors and windows, bonsai...

most of these things were picked up by Liao Quanfu.

Even the lamps on the house and the old objects such as stone tablets set into the grey bricks

were picked up too, and they blend with the house as if made for it!

Not only can he not bear to see old objects ruined,

Liao Quanfu also cannot bear to see clear waters and green mountains ruined,

and over the years he has formed the habit of picking up litter whenever he sees it.

At home, if he sees litter in the river in the woods, he goes into the river to pick it up.

When travelling, if he sees litter on a mountain, he can spend 3 hours picking it up.

In any case, whether on a business trip or travelling, as long as he sees litter, he picks it up.

And he has been picking it up for 20 years!

He said: "I just want, through picking up litter, to make more people pay attention to environmental protection!"

Whether protecting herons, protecting ancient buildings or picking up litter,

Liao Quanfu has one obsession in his heart:

to leave something for future generations.

Planting trees to protect herons, voluntarily picking up litter...

These things not only bring Liao Quanfu no income at all,

they have also consumed most of his life's savings.

Liao Quanfu's family did not understand at first, especially his daughter!

Working in Beijing and used to the bright lights and fast pace of a bustling city,

she could not understand why her father, owning such a large woodland,

still dressed in rags and picked up litter everywhere!

It was not until later, when Liao Quanfu brought her to move to Heron Manor,

that she understood why her father was so passionate about environmental protection.

She discovered that living in a forest screened by trees, with clear waters and green mountains,

was so wonderful after all!

In the morning, she and her mother

take up brooms

to sweep the courtyard

and water the flowers.

The vast courtyard takes two or three hours to sweep every day,

but she does not find it boring at all; instead, she enjoys it immensely!

After sweeping the courtyard, they rest for a while,

and then Liao Fan and her mother go to their own little vegetable garden

to pick some fresh hyacinth beans, cucumbers, green beans...

The fresh vegetables are picked and brought back,

washed clean and chopped,

and her mother nimbly cooks a table of good dishes.

The family, amid the screening green trees,

amid

the songs of the herons, eats lunch.

The days pass amid these plants and trees, these vegetables and greens,

clean and peaceful!

Liao Quanfu's heartfelt love for nature and for the herons

has let him guard this Heron Manor for 20 years as if it were a single day.

However hard or tiring, he has never given up.

Today his dream has finally come true!

I hope that every one of us, like him,

will love nature and protect the environment we depend on for survival!

And leave a little clear water and green mountains for our children and grandchildren!

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