Su Qionghai of Pingfu Village Teaches Beekeeping Skills for Free, Helping Villagers Escape Poverty and Become Wealthy

In Pingfu Village, Deshun Township, Liping County, a mysterious village embraced on all sides by towering ancient trees, there lives an extraordinary man who sometimes roams the steep mountains and sometimes appears in the forest. He is busy tending the beehives in the forest. He is Su Qionghai, a beekeeper from the Dong ethnic area, a passionate leader in the pursuit of prosperity.

Su Qionghai grew up in an ordinary family in the mountains. His grandfather's generation were all beekeepers, but they merely treated beekeeping as entertainment or a small hobby. Nurtured in this environment, Su Qionghai naturally inherited the true skills from his elders. Combined with his own improvements to beekeeping techniques and beehives, and his understanding of the industry environment, through hard work he expanded his operations to cover the four great mountains nearby -- Sanxingpo, Motianling, Taiping Mountain, and Liubei Mountain -- leading more people to prosperity. In 2011 he began relatively large-scale breeding. Now he has 500 boxes placed out, with more than 200 boxes occupied by bees. He earns a stable income of over 200,000 yuan each year.

Currently, Su Qionghai has invested 30,000 yuan of his own funds to cooperate with 20 farming households including Shi Deming and Liao Shengcai in 6 villages -- Pingjia, Piao'an, Leidayan, Shengli, Shunhua, and Anmin -- teaching them techniques free of charge, using his own money to build wooden boxes (beehives), going up the mountains with them to place the hives, and teaching them techniques hand by hand. Under Su Qionghai's guidance, Liao Shengcai, a impoverished household in Piao'an Village, earned a net income of over 20,000 yuan last year from the 23 hives he placed on the mountain.

Su Qionghai's next goal is to expand the scale to 5,000 boxes, to drive more than 100 beekeeping households, and to extend his reach to townships including Shuikou, Shunhua, Hongzhou, Zhongchao, and Yongcong.

This is a relatively simple beekeeping method: villagers only need to place nailed wooden boxes in the mountain gullies near the village, and each year when wild bees swarm, they will find these ideal new hives to settle down and live happily. Nearly every household in the entire village has beehives. Some have dozens of boxes, while others have at least eight or nine. They can be placed anywhere, and regardless of whose responsibility mountain it is, they can be placed there without anyone interfering, stealing, or damaging them. Wild honey is harvested twice a year, once in July and once in winter. Each box produces about 20 kg of honey each time, not including what is left for the bee colony to eat over the winter.

The location of Pingfu Village is very unique, situated in the embrace of great mountains. To the east is the famous Sanxingpo, to the north is the National Forest Park -- Taiping Mountain, and to the south is the natural grassland -- Liubei Mountain. Vast expanses of richly colored primeval forest and beautiful mountain village scenery make this an ideal place for the large-scale development of wild bees. Here natural forests stretch in patches, with rich varieties of tree and flower species, so the quality of the honey is very good. It is a fine food ingredient for the villagers' daily life and a good way to earn money. Each box of honey, at 40 kg for two harvests, brings in nearly 1,000 yuan in income, and ten boxes means 10,000 yuan.

Simply dressed, of medium build and on the thin side, with deeply reddened skin, he shows a calm confidence in his speech and manner. "It is meaningless for one person to be rich. It is only meaningful to lead everyone to earn money and become wealthy together. I hope all my fellow villagers can join in..." Su Qionghai was giving free training to several villagers who are interested in beekeeping. Hearing these bold yet noble words from Su Qionghai, this editor could not help but feel deep respect.