Two post-80s millennials went to the countryside to become new farmers, traveling all over the country to learn from others

The economic benefits of Zhang Guohua's estate are gradually emerging, and his elderly father's mindset has been reversed step by step. Photo by Huang Guanghua and Jia Lingyu, reporters for this newspaper

This is the story of two people returning to their hometowns.

Qilu Evening News reporters Huang Guanghua, Jia Lingyu, Wan Bing, intern Xiong Yu

In the past, they swiped cards to eat at their work unit; now they have to arrange everything themselves

It had been quite a while since the old father last saw Zhang Guohua. At 3 p.m. on May 6, Zhang Guohua returned from Qingdao. He did not go home, but went straight to the small wooden cabin at the foot of the mountain. After hurriedly eating some dumplings bought from the town, he prepared to go out again the next day to continue learning.

"They say traveling ten thousand li is the best way to learn, but this year alone I've already exceeded that number." Zhang Guohua is the general manager of Wukangxuan Modern Agriculture and Forestry Development Co., Ltd. In early 2015, he and four friends founded this company together. They contracted 2000 mu of mountain land and named it "Guoli Estate," focusing mainly on forestry, supplemented by cash crops. So far, they have invested four to five million, and profits are expected in 2018.

Due to the large initial investment, Zhang Guohua is under great pressure. When busy, he sleeps only a little over 4 hours a day. After the Spring Festival, he rushed nonstop to Shanghai, Guizhou, Shenzhen, Beijing, ** and other places to visit experts and connect with business partners.

All of this was Zhang Guohua's own doing. Born in 1980, after graduating from Shandong University of Political Science and Law in 2001, he stayed on at the school as a counselor for 6 years. In 2007, he went to great lengths to take the exam to become a prison guard at Rencheng Prison, and did that for 8 years. Last year he became restless again. In early 2015, he was sent by his work unit to Beijing for training, during which he visited the mountains contracted by an older female friend. On more than 20,000 mu of land, there was no cafeteria, no hotel; they grew their own vegetables to eat, completely self-sufficient. After staying only two days, he exclaimed, "This is the life I want!"

After returning home, Zhang Guohua discussed it with four friends, and they contracted this mountain in Guoli Town. He acted immediately, even quitting his civil service job. In the days after leaving his work unit, his originally regular life suddenly fell into chaos. "In the past, I swiped a card to eat at my work unit; now I have to fry my own eggs and cook my own noodles." Zhang Guohua said that at his work unit, he collected his salary on time and relied on the organization for everything. Now he had become the "organization" for others, and had to think about paying his employees' wages. In the first few months after leaving the system, it really was a bit hard to adapt.

Lost 400,000 yuan growing edamame, traveled all over the country to learn from others

Throwing away the "iron rice bowl" to return home and start a business, the elders in the family strongly opposed it, and even bigger setbacks were yet to come.

In July 2015, the edamame on the estate ripened. Zhang Guohua had originally thought he could earn 1 million, enough for all the expenses by the end of the year. However, the best harvest window for edamame was only three days. The task was heavy and time was tight, but he could not find pickers on short notice. The labor costs he offered kept rising; fortunately, the town arranged for loudspeaker broadcasts in every village, and only then was he able to gather enough workers. During those days, Zhang Guohua stayed in the fields all day and got so sunburned that his skin peeled several times. Even with such hard work, when the final accounts were tallied, he had still lost 400,000 yuan.

Afterwards, the partners reflected on it. There were management problems, weather-related reasons, and one important point: four of the five had grown up as city kids and had never had mud on their feet. "During that period, I was in a really bad state, as if there was no way out." Zhang Guohua recalled that at the time he did not want to leave the house and even became depressed for a while. In the end, he took his wife's advice and went out to study. From north to south, from east to west, he visited countless experts and attended countless training sessions, gained a new understanding of the industry, and figured out quite a few strategies.

So they began fruit tree adoption, straw-sandal farming, Chinese classics summer camps, star poetry recitals, youth tree-planting activities, and established the Jining Youth Green Alliance... After more than a year of effort, the company began to improve, and the ecological, economic, and social benefits gradually emerged at Guoli Estate.

??? On May 6, Zhang Guohua's father came to Guoli Estate for the first time. You have to understand that his son had quit his job without discussing it with his father. The old father, thinking that his own legs had not yet been pulled out of the mud, was furious that his son had voluntarily stepped into it, and for a long time refused to come to the estate. "He used to be a university teacher, then passed the civil service exam and became a police officer. That was something to make the ancestors proud." The old father said that his son quitting to farm was not proper work.

It had already been a year. This time, when he came to the estate, the old father looked left and right, and finally understood that this was completely different from his own farming. And Zhang Guohua had also been thinking all along, "Why do farmers earn so little from farming? They think grain is just grain, and don't realize it is a product. They only sell crops. We turn grain into products, and products into brands, just like a bottle of water, whose price ranges from a few yuan to several hundred yuan." He said that what he wanted to do was do well what farmers cannot do well, and turn agriculture into a brand. This requires young people to join in, and he can foresee that in the future more young people will return to rural areas.

While others scroll through WeChat Moments, they just focus on feeding chickens and raising sheep on the farm

In Dongheishan Village, Dong'e Town, Pingyin County, nearly 200 km from Zoucheng, Ma Ruilian, who was originally a small business owner in the city, was also unwilling to settle for just feeding chickens and raising sheep.

After graduating from Shandong Normal University, Ma Ruilian first taught for a year at a vocational college in Jinan. "It happened that a well-known IT company in Shandong was recruiting, so I applied and did store sales. After four and a half months of effort, I reached middle management." Ma Ruilian said that after working there for two full years, she started her own company, engaged in laptop skin application and accessory sales. In three years, the company also became quite successful.

But one small incident made her change her life path again. "In 2008, the tainted milk powder incident caused a huge uproar, and afterward all kinds of food safety problems kept emerging, which made me want to go to the mountains and fields to rent land, grow grain, plant trees, and grow vegetables." Ma Ruilian said that at that time she had just become a mother not long before, and in order to let her daughter eat safe vegetables, she decided to "go to the countryside." After returning to rural life, Ma Ruilian not only did not feel out of place, but instead felt even more at home. "My whole mood was very relaxed, without the oppression and fear of city life."

On the south mountain of Heishan Village, she raised more than 5,000 chickens in free-range conditions and also introduced Boer goats. While others open their eyes and scroll through WeChat Moments, she opens her eyes to chickens, sheep, and vegetables. "First thing in the morning, I feed the chickens. This meal is a well-proportioned mix of grain. After feeding the chickens, I eat breakfast, then in the morning I tidy the vegetable garden, weed by hand, and also herd the sheep up the mountain. For the noon meal, the chickens need vitamin supplements, so I have to feed them some vegetable leaves. After 3 p.m., I make a round up the mountain to check on the various fruit trees." Ma Ruilian uses the word "fulfilling" to describe her daily life.