In Miyun District, "Silly Old Zhang" turned his contracted wasteland into an orchard
In a house on the small hill north of Xiaokailing Village, Gaoling Town, Miyun District, lives an elderly couple past their sixties. Their daily life consists of pulling weeds, cooking and resting, while the fruit trees covering the mountain around their house were planted by the couple's own hands over nearly 20 years, covering more than 100 mu.
"This 'Silly Old Zhang' contracted the village's barren mountain." 20 years ago, this was a phrase the villagers of Xiaokailing Village often said. This "Silly Old Zhang" is Zhang Shaohe, the owner of today's hundred-mu orchard. "Back then, everyone was willing to contract farmland, but I took a fancy to this mountain and wanted to make it green," Zhang Shaohe said. In 1996, he borrowed 6,000 yuan and contracted the hundred-mu barren hillside that everyone else had dismissed.
In the 2nd year after contracting it, "Silly Old Zhang" moved to the mountain with his wife and children. "There are wild jujubes on the mountain. Although they taste good, they are small. Could we use the flavor of the wild jujubes to graft them into large jujube trees?" He dared to dream and dared to act. Soon, he and his wife got to work, first going to the farmers' market to buy jujube saplings, then grafting them one by one after returning. "First graft a few dozen and see how it goes," Zhang Shaohe said. After grafting, he and his wife busied themselves every day caring for these jujube trees, hoping for a good harvest.
These few dozen jujube trees did them proud. The next year, their branches were covered with fruit, larger than wild jujubes but just as good in taste. Old Zhang was very happy and decided to graft all of the more than 2,000 wild jujube trees on the mountain. However, the debt from contracting the mountain had not yet been repaid, so where would the money come from to buy saplings? With no other choice, Old Zhang borrowed 10,000 yuan from a good friend. With his friend's support, Zhang Shaohe worked even harder at growing fruit trees. Every day at dawn, Zhang Shaohe and his wife began to work, not returning home until dark.
Today, this hundred-mu barren hillside has become fruit trees covering the mountain slopes: jujube trees, pear trees, walnut trees, plum trees, prune trees... On this mountain, more than 10 kinds of fruit trees bring "Silly Old Zhang" an income of more than 100,000 yuan each year.