The road to prosperity of Ren Guofu, the "Iron Man of Cangshan"

In Yangbi, when people talk about apples, everyone thinks of the place called Lijiazhuang, and they talk about "Lijiazhuang apples."

Every November, when you step into the Lijiazhuang apple orchard in Cangshanxi Town, Yangbi County, located on the western slope of Cangshan, all you see are clusters and clumps of heavy apples bending the branches, covering the slopes and hills, exceptionally bright and eye-catching, sweet-smelling and tempting. A spirited, high-morale 65-year-old man shuttles through the apple orchard, busy and happy beyond measure. "Our apples are grown naturally, rest assured, they are even healthier to eat!" He is Ren Guofu, receiving wave after wave of tourists who have come drawn by his reputation.

In the apple orchard, Ren Guofu talked about the hardships and difficult course of developing apples. "More than 20 years ago, the villagers ate potatoes and buckwheat, the village had no electricity, no water, no road; it was a truly poor place." Watching the villagers live from meal to meal, Ren Guofu, as a Party member, saw it and felt anxious. "How can I lead the villagers onto a road to prosperity?" Ren Guofu thought hard and could not sleep at night.

"How about we rely on Cangshan's unique ecological climate and try developing fruit growing? In the future it will surely 'take off'!" During a casual chat with villagers, Ren Guofu told them. The decision was made, and everyone said they would get right to it. But once they started, they realized: lack of water, lack of funds, lack of technology... these problems pressed down on everyone so hard they could barely breathe.

Growing apples became a path no predecessor had taken

Lijiazhuang, with high mountains and steep slopes, poor soil and a cold climate, was once a poor place known far and wide as "a place even ghosts dread." The local folk rhyme goes: "If you have a daughter, do not marry her to Lijiazhuang, broken thatched huts, tattered clothes, water more precious than oil, pumpkin soup at every meal."

In order to choose the right industry, Ren Guofu and everyone held many meetings and discussions; after selecting and rejecting many options, they finally settled on growing apples. "At that time, the most mature industry in Yangbi was walnuts, but it had no special characteristics." Yet Ren Guofu knew that growing apples locally meant taking a road no predecessor had taken and starting an enterprise no one else had started, and the prospects were worrying.

"Although everyone agreed to grow apples, Old Ren still had many misgivings. At night, he would lie down and get up, get up and lie down again, and in no time he seemed to have aged a great deal!" said Ren Guofu's wife, Wang Shumei. That year was 1993, and Ren Guofu was already 41. Whenever he saw Lijiazhuang's geographical environment and natural conditions, and saw that barren land, Ren Guofu, as a Party member, carrying the hopes of the villagers, had no choice but to take the risk of developing the apple industry. So, full of hope, he led everyone to begin building the apple orchard and set out on a difficult path of entrepreneurship.

Cutting through the mountain to bring in water nearly cost the villagers their lives

To develop planting on a barren, arid piece of land, water became the biggest "roadblock." Over nearly 1 month, Ren Guofu led the villagers deep into the old forests of Cangshan to search for water sources. In the end, they decided to channel water to Lijiazhuang from Biaoshuiyan Waterfall, 4 kilometers away. He then led the villagers to eat and sleep on the mountain, using "crude" tools such as five-chi rods and spirit levels for surveying, and using their hands and hoes to dig ditches. Everyone's hands were covered in blood blisters, and their palms were all calluses. More than a month after construction began, a young villager accidentally fell from the worksite at the edge of a cliff, and this cast a shadow over everyone. Some people said that Biaoshuiyan Waterfall was where Guanyin resided and could not be touched, so everyone backed out one after another, and the water diversion project stopped. So Ren Guofu went door to door persuading everyone, and also hired a contract labor team; the project, halted for more than a month, was able to start again, and after more than 8 months in total, the snow water of Cangshan was finally channeled to Lijiazhuang. Seeing such a difficult project, everyone was astonished, and at the place where the stone was cut, they carved the sigh: "A water curtain a thousand chi high, through the ages no one can roll it up."

Learning techniques, once traveling a thousand li to seek a teacher

"Seeing only six or seven apples on the apple trees was heartbreaking." After the apple orchard was completed, due to a lack of cultivation techniques and management experience, the orchard, though full of trees, bore very little fruit, and both appearance and taste were unsatisfactory.

Ren Guofu knew well that only by relying on science and technology could yield and quality be improved. At that time, he paid out of his own pocket to seek instruction everywhere, gnawing steamed buns on the road and drinking tap water by the roadside to stave off hunger and thirst. No matter how far the journey, he only took hard seats on the train, even squatting in the train aisle, and after returning he taught the villagers hand by hand. Once he heard that the apple industry in Qingdao, Shandong was developing very well, so without another word he scraped together less than 1000 yuan and set off. In Qingdao, when the experts saw Ren Guofu in ragged clothes, they were moved and taught him everything they knew. Afterwards, Ren Guofu also spared no expense to hire an apple branch pruning expert from Xuzhou, Jiangsu, and under the guidance of agricultural science experts carried out soil improvement. At the same time, he successively introduced many fine varieties such as Golden Delicious, Gala and Red Fuji, and in 2007 the apple orchard turned a profit after years of losses.

With no money, he borrowed everywhere and was once deeply in debt

For an apple orchard of nearly 1000 mu, construction and management required a great deal of funds. "All the family's money was taken by him, and he borrowed money everywhere. Debt collectors came to the house to make trouble every few days, and we did not dare stay home during the day." Speaking of the past, Ren Guofu's wife, Wang Shumei, was full of complaints.

"The villagers had no money, and I had no money either. But if I did not find a way, this industry would truly fail." Ren Guofu did as he said. In the seven years after the apple orchard was built, the couple decided to contract the apple trees they had tended for more than 7 years in sections to the workers in the orchard. If they lacked technique, Ren Guofu taught them personally; if they lacked funds, Ren Guofu took out his own family's money to help them, and also helped them guarantee loans and paid them back first when they came due. In 2007, in order to strengthen and expand the Lijiazhuang apple industry, Ren Guofu, through exploration, established a "shareholding" management model for the apple orchard that integrated local resources and common prosperity. Through forms such as "barren mountain shares," "labor shares" and "production technology shares," he joined with villagers from the two neighboring villager groups of Niufengdui and Shaojiadi to form the Lijiazhuang Farmers' Professional Cooperative. In 2016, Ren Guofu also used e-commerce to promote Lijiazhuang's apples across the country. From then on, the orchard's development kept improving and became more and more prosperous.

Lijiazhuang apples "took off," and the villagers became rich

At present, the Lijiazhuang apple orchard has grown to more than 1000 mu, and the apple industry has driven nearby households to increase their incomes by more than 100,000 yuan on average.

Ren Xinglong, a poor household living in Meixi Village, Cangshanxi Town, works in the apple orchard all year round, with a monthly income of about 3000 to 4000 yuan. Ren Xinglong said happily that he was truly grateful to the cooperative for giving him a stable income and solving his practical difficulties of having neither funds nor technique, and he was full of confidence about shaking off poverty and becoming rich. It is reported that nearly 60 local people work at the cooperative for more than 3 months each year, and more than 20 people work at the cooperative for about 9 months.

Nowadays, when you walk into the Lijiazhuang apple orchard, you can see ripe apples hanging all over the branches everywhere. As gusts of breeze pass by, the sweet fragrance of fruit and the laughter of the fruit growers spread throughout the orchard. Ren Guofu, called by the people the "Iron Man of Cangshan," also reaped success. Local people all gave him a thumbs-up in praise, and he received full recognition from all sectors of society. In 2010 he was awarded the title of model worker by the prefectural people's government, and in 2011 he was named a "Model Worker of the 20th Yunnan Province."