Chen Xiaolan, who made her fortune in aquaculture, is a strong woman.

Chen Xiaolan, an aquaculture farmer in Beiquan Town, Shihezi General Farm, started out as an ordinary worker at an aquaculture farm and grew to have more than 280 mu of farming area, an annual fish output of 243 tons and an output value of 3.4 million yuan, becoming a well-known large-scale farmer. She has endless tales of ups and downs.

In the autumn of 1987, Chen Xiaolan contracted more than 50 mu of fish ponds at the aquaculture farm of the Third Branch of Shihezi General Farm and began working in aquaculture. Because she did not know much about fish farming techniques at the time, she put in no small effort, but her income was not high; apart from supporting her family, little was left of her annual income. In 1996, the farm was restructured and the fish ponds were sold off. Chen Xiaolan went to all her relatives and friends and scraped together loans to buy 100 mu of fish ponds. Having suffered the bitterness and hardship of not understanding scientific farming techniques, she secretly made up her mind to learn aquaculture technology and master advanced experience and methods of scientific farming. She bought "Knowledge of Fish Farming Techniques" and subscribed to magazines and other books and newspapers on aquaculture, studying hard whenever she had time. Through continuous reading and study, she gradually mastered scientific feed formulation, fish rearing and fish disease prevention and control. In the spring of 1997, in order to learn advanced aquaculture technology, she raised more than 10,000 yuan and went to Guangzhou to learn from experience. During more than ten days in Guangzhou, she not only learned advanced aquaculture, fish breeding and fish disease prevention and control techniques from both north and south, but also felt the enterprising and constantly innovative spirit of the people of Guangzhou.

Expanding the farming area and enlarging the scale of farming: this is what Chen Xiaolan thought, and this is what she did. Through several years of capital accumulation, Chen Xiaolan invested a large amount of funds in 2004. On the basis of newly built fish ponds, she bought several abandoned ponds for renovation, expanding the farming area to more than 280 mu. Over the years, whenever she had the chance, she often went to the mainland to study and exchange ideas, make friends widely, and bring back new local varieties and new technologies. As her experience and knowledge grew richer, the introduced new varieties, through constant exploration and improvement and careful management, achieved repeated success in trials. In 2012, Chen Xiaolan's 280 mu of fish ponds were used for polyculture. The farmed crucian carp reached an annual output of 27 tons, common carp 10 tons, silver carp 36 tons, grass carp 110 tons, Wuchang fish 40 tons, yellow catfish 22 tons, and Pacific white shrimp 0.6 tons, with an annual output of 243 tons, an output value of 3.4 million yuan and a net profit of 920,000 yuan.

In recent years, the aquaculture market has not been very prosperous. On the basis of her previous aquaculture varieties, Chen Xiaolan added projects such as loach farming, bringing the number of aquaculture varieties to more than 30. With the business strategy of "having what others do not have, and being more refined in what others do have," she calmly responds, and among the hundreds of aquaculture farmers in Beiquan Town, Shihezi General Farm, her fish output, output value and profit still rank first.

In order to help more aquaculture farmers get rich together, in 2014 Chen Xiaolan led the registration and establishment of the Tianyu Breeding Cooperative in Beiquan Town. She recommends good techniques and good varieties that have been tested and practiced to the farmers, and passes on her own personal experiences and lessons to others. Today, driven by Chen Xiaolan, the members of the Tianyu Breeding Cooperative have grown to 32 households, driving employment for 38 people.