Liu Ziqing of Yongfeng Gets Rich by Raising Snakes, Dancing with Snakes to Break New Ground

Liu Ziqing (first from right) introduces snakes to visiting buyers

At the reservoir management office of Zhongcun Township, Yongfeng County, surrounded by green bamboo on all sides, with spring water flowing year-round, fertile soil rich in selenium, and swirling mist, the conditions are ideal for snakes to live. It was precisely this geographical environment that caught Liu Ziqing's eye, and on this land he began his path of snake farming.

When we met Liu Ziqing, he was leading a group of out-of-town buyers on a tour of his snake farming base. He spoke endlessly when introducing his snake farming experience. What kind of environment is most suitable for snakes to grow in, what health benefits snakes have, which types of snakes are the most aggressive - he knew it all like the back of his hand.

Prying Open the "Snake Door"

Liu Ziqing's fateful connection with snakes begins with a chapter of his own life. After graduating from university in 2004, Liu Ziqing went to Hangzhou to seek his fortune. At the time, e-commerce was booming, and he seized the opportunity, resolutely founding his own clothing brand and selling it worldwide through Taobao. Within one year, his company's total annual sales reached more than 20 million.

But just when his business was flourishing, misfortune suddenly struck. Long-term work pressure and staying up late led to serious health problems. After seeking medical treatment in many places without success, he met an elderly traditional Chinese medicine doctor who ran a snake therapy clinic and began trying snake therapy. Half a year later, his body had fully recovered. This experience showed Liu Ziqing the business opportunity in snake farming and the deep processing of snake products. In 2013, he gave up the clothing business he had run for many years and returned to his hometown, embarking on the path of "dancing with snakes."

Exploring the "Snake Path"

Since he had never been involved in this industry before, Liu Ziqing encountered many difficulties during his entrepreneurial journey, but his refusal to give in carried him through. In August 2013, Liu Ziqing changed his identity and started his business anew. To overcome his psychological fear of snakes, Liu Ziqing traveled many times to snake farming bases in Guangxi, Hunan and Yunnan to train and conduct research, and discussed and studied together with local renowned masters, professors and experts, medical universities and folk snake doctors, while also attending snake farming conferences held in various places.

If you walk along the river often, how can you avoid getting your shoes wet? Once, Liu Ziqing accidentally had his left hand bitten by a five-pace snake (Deinagkistrodon acutus), and intense pain surged through his whole body. He immediately tied off his left arm with a cloth strip to prevent the venom from reaching his heart, then applied Chinese herbal medicine externally. "Fortunately, I took measures in time, otherwise this life would have belonged to the snake," Liu Ziqing said.

Hard work pays off. Through continuous exploration, Liu Ziqing learned techniques including force-feeding venomous snakes, snakebite self-rescue, venom extraction, incubation, temperature control for hibernation and non-hibernation, and the prevention and treatment of snake diseases, becoming a truly skilled snake farmer in the industry. Now Liu Ziqing has rebuilt his own breeding team and online sales team. The company covers an area of more than 10,000 sq m and has breeding rooms, incubation rooms, juvenile snake rooms, feed preparation rooms, management rooms and medicine rooms. It mainly breeds five-pace snakes (Deinagkistrodon acutus), many-banded kraits (Bungarus multicinctus), cobras, black-tailed pit vipers (Zaocys dhumnades) and oriental rat snakes (Ptyas mucosus), and has driven more than 30 surrounding farming households, achieving annual sales of more than 10 million yuan.

Determined to Be the "Snake Head"

Having succeeded in snake farming, Liu Ziqing became a role model for other farmers to learn from. Through exchanges, Liu Ziqing found that many small-scale farmers had high costs, immature farming techniques and no say in the market, and could go under at any time. This situation worried Liu Ziqing considerably. How could he drive small and medium-sized specialty farmers to increase their incomes and get rich together? Natural ecological farming and the "company + cooperative + internet" model were the best way forward.

To raise high-quality snakes, Liu Ziqing feeds them entirely on wild loach and yellow eel; even the white mice the snakes eat are fed on yellow mealworms. Each snake pool is especially large, allowing the snakes to move freely and exercise their muscles, improving their quality. "Although the cost of feeding this way is very high, the snake meat tastes better and has high medicinal value. It is very popular on the market, and the price is a notch higher too," Liu Ziqing said.

"At present, commercial snakes are selling extremely well online, and the cooperative is also being set up. My wish is to drive my fellow villagers to farm snakes, and for everyone to make money together," Liu Ziqing said, describing a specialty industry that, through the "company + cooperative + internet" model, specializes in integrated farming, processing, incubation and sales of snake hatchlings, promotion of farming techniques, epidemic prevention services, and the purchase and processing of commercial snakes. "Next, the company will continue to expand the scale of the cooperative, comprehensively promote green ecological farming, and form its own green brand. At the same time, we will build an ecological farm specifically to popularize snake food culture, and build an industrial chain for health products such as five-pace snake wine, striving to become the Snake King of Jiangxi." When talking about his next plans, Liu Ziqing was quite confident.