Cherry Valley Master Li Changchun's Path of Entrepreneurship as a Modern Yu Gong
“Investing in agriculture requires a large upfront investment, and it is laborious and taxing, but as a villager of this village, I am willing and happy to make this investment.” When he said these words to the reporter, the barren hills and slopes of the past had already been transformed by Li Changchun into a “Mountain of Flowers and Fruit,” with cherry, pear, peach and other fruit trees of all kinds visible everywhere across the hillsides, planted in orderly rows.
Li Changchun is a villager of Zhifang Village, Wufeng Mountain, Changqing District. Over 28 years he has grown from a migrant worker into the owner of a cherry valley covering nearly 1,000 mu. He “does not forget the well-digger when drinking water,” and has not only helped the village build the road up the mountain, but also established the Zhifang Large Cherry Professional Cooperative and the Changqing District Wufeng Mountain Large Cherry Planting Association, leading more than 600 fruit-growing households in Zhifang, Zhuzhuang, Qiuzhuang and surrounding villages out of poverty toward prosperity.
Transportation Difficulties Left Zhifang Cherries “Unknown to All”
Wufeng Mountain is a sacred site of Daoism, with beautiful peaks. In recent years, the large cherries of Zhifang Village, located on the southern slope of Wufeng Mountain, have also become renowned within and beyond the province for their large size and sweetness. Every year when the cherries hit the market, merchants gather in crowds, bringing substantial benefits to local fruit growers. Yet who would have thought that Zhifang Village, now famous far and wide for its cherries, once had cherries that nobody knew about or had ever heard of.
As the story goes, although cherry cultivation in Zhifang Village has a long history, the villagers' planting methods were monotonous, the varieties few, and the scale small. Combined with the steep mountain terrain and the lack of water in the mountains, the twenty or thirty mu of cherries in the village could only be managed extensively. “At that time, villagers going up the mountain to tend the cherries had to follow the gullies and ‘crawl’ up along narrow goat trails. Carrying manure, fertilizing, and watering were all done by manpower - either shouldering or carrying with a pole. Not even a ‘farm cart’ could get in.” Li Changchun said. The cherries grew poorly and were hard to sell. When a good batch came along, they would find a way to transport them out, but the bumps and knocks during transport meant they could not fetch a good price.
Using Entrepreneurship's “First Bucket of Gold”to Return to the Village and Contract Barren Hills
Zhifang Village, where Li Changchun grew up, is a small mountain village - seven parts mountain terrain to three parts flatland. Because the mountain soil is thin and barren and irrigation conditions are lacking, villagers could only rely on planting cherry, chestnut and other fruit trees on the slope land near the village, resulting in low income. Like many rural people, in order to earn money, Li Changchun went out to work after graduating from junior high school. Twenty-eight years ago, having just graduated from junior high, Li Changchun followed people from his hometown to do building installation work near Wuying Mountain in Jinan. As time went on, Li Changchun became a small “labor contractor,” with as many as sixty or seventy people working under him at the peak. Gradually, his business expanded from Jinan to surrounding cities. “There were quite a few clients from other cities too - the farthest I went was Shaanxi.” Li Changchun said.
Around 1998, while doing building installation work for a large bus factory, Li Changchun had the good fortune to become connected with buses. He took out most of the money he had earned from years of labor and bought 6 buses at once. He hired drivers and started a bus transportation business, which he ran for 10 years, accumulating substantial entrepreneurial wealth for himself.
During the interview, many villagers from the same village said that Li Changchun was always a “warm-hearted person.” Whenever any family had a wedding or funeral and villagers were short of money, as long as they found Li Changchun, he never hesitated. During the 2009 Spring Festival, when some villagers went to Li Changchun's home to pay New Year's calls, they encouraged him to invest in doing something for the village. “The village is so far behind, and you have seen the outside world. See if you can think of a way to help the village develop something.” That very night, Li Changchun and his wife made the decision to contract the barren hills and start a business in the village.
Cutting Through Mountains and Building Roads, Willingly Playing the Modern “Yu Gong”
The barren hill that Li Changchun contracted has steep terrain, no water within the mountain, and only a narrow goat trail leading in. Not long after the Spring Festival, road construction was put on the agenda. But things were not as easy as imagined. In order not to occupy the good roads and affect the villagers' normal access to the mountain, the road was built along the mountain ridge at the time, but it still drew disapproving looks for occupying some villagers' land or trees, and cold words occasionally drifted into the ears of Li Changchun and his wife. “You have a perfectly good life, why come back to this remote mountain nook to stir things up?” “Opening up this mountain is like Yu Gong moving the mountain - you have to be willing to put in effort, sweat, and money.” Once Li Changchun sets his mind on something, not even eight horses could pull him back. In order to build the road as quickly as possible, he moved his home up the mountain, brought in machinery, hired workers, and began the “moving mountains” path of building mountain roads, creating terraced fields, and drilling deep wells.
It is understood that in order to increase farmers' income, Li Changchun invited capable villagers to work on the mountain, providing not only meals but also wages higher than what they could earn working elsewhere. Excavators, bulldozers, wheelbarrows - vehicles and people came and went. Stone ridges were chiseled into layer upon layer of retaining walls, and soil was piled into block after block of terraced fields. Water sources were surveyed, deep wells were dug, and water storage ponds and dams were built. Building mountain roads required tremendous effort. Li Changchun led the workers in scientific planning, chiseling ridges and laying stones, and pouring in mud and sand. After more than a year of working day and night, spending over 2 million yuan, a 12.5-kilometer-long encircling mountain road was finally completed just before the Spring Festival.
What Li Changchun never expected was that when the Spring Festival came around again, the villagers, to thank him, spontaneously organized themselves to set off firecrackers at his doorstep as a gesture of gratitude.
Introducing New Varieties to Drive the Whole Village Toward Circular Agriculture
With the road built, terraced fields created, wells dug, and electricity connected, Li Changchun went to advanced regions to learn new cherry planting techniques, introduced quality large cherry varieties such as “Zaodaguo” and “Lapins,” and invited experts to explain pruning and other cultivation techniques. Greenhouse cherries come to market early and generate high income, so Li Changchun invested in building winter-warm greenhouses to produce early-spring cherries. Under Li Changchun's leadership, the fruit growers of Zhifang Village also expanded their cherry planting areas on their own mountain slopes and hills, and he proactively provided techniques to his neighbors and fellow villagers. Today, the large cherry varieties planted in Zhifang Village have expanded from the initial two or three to more than twenty varieties, and the harvest period has been extended from the initial 3-5 days to more than 40 days. It has become the cherry orchard with the earliest maturity and the best taste in the province.
In August 2009, Li Changchun established the Zhifang Large Cherry Professional Cooperative. Using the ecological planting and breeding circular model of “livestock breeding — biogas, biogas slurry, biogas residue — forest fruit — production of organic fruit,” he developed circular agriculture. The biogas produced is used not only for production and daily living energy, but can also be partly used for supplemental lighting and heating in greenhouse cultivation. The CO2 generated from combustion is used as gas fertilizer, thereby increasing crop yield and improving quality.
“In the large cherry planting areas, biogas residue and fully decomposed organic fertilizer are mainly used as base fertilizer, which reduces the use of chemical fertilizers and increases soil organic matter content, raising large cherry yields by about 15%. Spraying biogas slurry on large cherry branches and leaves achieves a pest control effect of over 90%.” Li Changchun said. Add to that the unique conditions of mountain spring water irrigation, ample sunshine, and good ventilation, and the cherries grown are large, fleshy, high in sugar content, and excellent in taste. A picking group from Liaocheng once joked, “People from our area haven't even gotten to drink spring water, but your cherries here got to drink it first.”
Establishing an Association to Drive Surrounding Villages Out of Poverty Toward Prosperity
In March 2010, Li Changchun established the “Changqing District Wufeng Mountain Large Cherry Planting Association” and served as its president. Leveraging the brand resource advantage of “Provincial-Level Tourist Resort - Wufeng Mountain,” he built the “Wufeng Mountain Large Cherry” brand, registered a trademark, and cultivated the market. The association provides full-process technical guidance in all aspects of large cherry cultivation including fertilizer and water management, pest and disease control, purchasing, processing, and sales, achieving excellent social and economic benefits.
Today, the association has grown to 110 members and expanded the planting base by more than 5,000 mu, forming a development model of “market + association + base + farmers.” It has led more than 600 fruit-growing households in Zhifang, Zhuzhuang, Qiuzhuang and surrounding villages to plant cherries and escape poverty toward prosperity. The annual cherry output alone reaches 3.6 million kilograms, with income per mu of orchard exceeding 20,000 yuan and average household income increasing by 15,000 yuan. Cherry planting has become the leading industry for local farmers to increase income and achieve prosperity.