A golden phoenix flies out of a mountain gully in Dazu, Chongqing

Many young people yearn for city life and pursue an exciting lifestyle. But Ran Menglin, born in 1988, is different. He quit his job in a big city and returned to his hometown to develop a breeding business, content to struggle and start a business in a mountain gully. He says everyone has their own stage to strive on, and my stage is right here - a "golden phoenix" can fly out of a mountain gully just the same.

Quitting his job to return home and start a business, he "stumbled upon" pheasants

In 2008, when Ran Menglin graduated from a junior college in e-commerce, he was still one of the few college students in Xiaba Village, Zhuxi Town. Like many graduates, he found a job after graduation and struggled in a big city, and before he knew it, 6 years had passed.

In 2014, Ran Menglin returned home for Chinese New Year and was startled to find how much his hometown had changed, with plenty of job opportunities. Weary of the hardship of drifting from place to place, he decided to stay and start a business in his hometown.

Giving up a job in a big city to start a business in the countryside... this left Ran Menglin's family and the neighbors around him completely baffled.

"I just didn't want to work for someone else my whole life. I wanted to do a job I like." Explaining why he quit, Ran Menglin said, "Because I quit, my father even flew into a rage and ignored me for months. He felt that after all the trouble of graduating from college and being able to stay in a big city, I suddenly came home to be a farmer, and he lost face in front of the villagers."

But soon, a chance occurrence prompted Ran Menglin's family to change their views.

"Once, on the way to the market, I saw someone carrying a few pheasants in his hands, hawking them, and the price was 100 yuan each," Ran Menglin said. Pheasants are also called rainbow pheasants, and they are widely distributed in the southwestern region.

Ran Menglin thought to himself, "My hometown has a superior natural environment, with deep gullies and dense woods, suitable for breeding. Why not put some effort into pheasant farming?" By consulting relevant materials, he learned that pheasants differ from ordinary chickens, with habits of being active, eating small meals frequently, and eating only whole grains and wild vegetables and insects. "What's more unique is that because pheasants' lymphocytes and phagocytes are more developed than those of ordinary chickens, their disease resistance is extremely strong. They almost never get sick, and there is even less need to inject antibiotics. Doesn't this cater exactly to the current market?"

"Besides, going back home to start a business by farming is certainly unrealistic, and raising cattle and sheep costs too much. A project with low investment and high returns is what I need most," Ran Menglin analyzed. Pheasants are still a scarce breed on the market, so both price and market are guaranteed.

So Ran Menglin bet the first pot of gold in his life on pheasants, which also greatly reduced his family's opposition to his returning home to start a business.

Painstakingly learning breeding and calculating profits reasonably

When young people do things, they rely on sheer drive.

To learn breeding techniques, Ran Menglin traveled all over multiple farms in Yongchuan, working for free on the farms without asking for pay. After finishing his training and returning, he guarded the chicken farm day and night, building chicken sheds, and dozing off in the chicken coop when tired.

"The hardest part was that in the early stage, the pheasant chicks were very hard to 'wait on.' They required an indoor temperature of around 38°C. Every day I had to care for the chicks in the high-temperature chicken shed, and only then did I know what it meant to sweat like rain." Recalling his early entrepreneurial experience, although Ran Menglin was full of emotion, an immensely gratified smile appeared on his face.

After studying hard for a period, he began to introduce breeding stock and try raising them. With no site, he built a chicken shed in a mountain gully far from home and began his breeding career, eating and living entirely in the chicken shed. Through Ran Menglin's efforts, the survival rate of the pheasants reached about ninety percent. When he harvested the first pheasant egg, he stayed awake all night.

So far, Ran Menglin's pheasant farm has already sent more than 600 pheasants to market, at a unit price of 80-120 yuan each, and has sold more than 4,000 pheasant eggs.

While achieving results, Ran Menglin did not let profits go to his head. He did the accounts: pheasants generally reach market weight in batches after 5 months, and in the early period the profit per pheasant could reach 50-60 yuan. As breeding costs increase, the profit will shrink to 30 yuan. Raising one domestic chicken costs at most 20 yuan, and moreover the chicken farm currently covers more than 10 mu, a scale that is not yet large, with quite a few places idle. Using these empty spaces to also raise domestic chickens could bring an extra income every year. So he also raised several hundred domestic chickens around the pheasant enclosure to increase profit margins.

Cleverly borrowing the "east wind," aiming to build a brand

From the start of sales last November to such good sales results now, it is not that Ran Menglin is smooth-tongued, but that he borrowed an "east wind" and rode the wind and waves.

Like many entrepreneurs, when Ran Menglin happily carried pheasant eggs around hawking them, he encountered an awkward scene. To open up sales channels, he adopted a "cut prices to keep sales" model, at about 1 yuan per pheasant egg, the same price as ordinary eggs. Because each pheasant egg is not even half the size of an ordinary egg, many customers, after looking at the novelty, still bought ordinary eggs, and Ran Menglin's pheasant eggs were almost completely ignored.

Ran Menglin did not lose heart. He began trying to sell pheasant eggs through the internet. This move indeed worked. With their fresh and tender quality, fragrant taste, high protein, low fat, low cholesterol and other unique nutritional value, pheasant eggs won the affection of city people. Customers from different places came one after another to buy pheasant eggs, and the once-ignored pheasant eggs became in short supply.

In addition, Xiaba Village is no more than 5 km from Wanling Ancient Town in Rongchang. Ran Menglin also placed advertisements for his pheasant farm in this national 4A scenic area. Taking advantage of the development and construction of tourism in the ancient town, with many tourists coming to visit, Ran Menglin's pheasant and pheasant egg sales also went smoothly. The selling price of each pheasant egg soared to 3-4 yuan each, and just like that he caught a "free ride."

"Dazu also has many scenic areas. Baoding and Longshui Lake each receive tens of millions of visitors every year," Ran Menglin said. He has been paying attention to the entire Dazu tourism market. Next, he plans to use major festival days to open sales outlets in the Baoding Scenic Area and Longshui Lake Scenic Area, not only to gain popularity, but more importantly to make his brand bigger and more famous. "Only with a brand is there competitiveness, and only with competitiveness is there stronger vitality."

Ran Menglin said the achievements made now are only a stepping stone at the start of his business. His breeding dream continues, and he also wants to spur the enthusiasm of the surrounding people for breeding, so that everyone can get rich together...