Linfen County, Shanxi: He built a path to prosperity by raising deer

On June 1, Zhao Weifeng was feeding the deer.

Zhao Weifeng, who lives in Linfen County, Luliang City, Shanxi Province, goes to the deer farm 40 km from the county seat every day, and this has become part of his daily routine. From a migrant worker at a coal company to a pioneer of returning home to start a business, Zhao Weifeng's success is inseparable from his "prosperity deer."

In 2003, after being demobilized from the military, Zhao Weifeng began his working life, serving as a security guard, running a restaurant, selling computers... and eventually earned his first pot of gold in the coal sector. In 2012, he changed careers and founded his own company in Chegan Township, Linfen County, his hometown, becoming the first person in Linfen County's deer farming industry.

Deer fear heat but not cold, have relatively weak immunity, and are easily startled, so they are very difficult to raise. Zhao Weifeng hired deer farming experts from Northeast China at high salaries and had local keepers learn from scratch. At present, his deer farm has more than 100 deer, with velvet antler as its flagship product, mainly sold to herbal medicine companies in the south. Each deer can generate nearly 6,000 yuan in net profit per year from the sale of velvet antler.

Zhao Weifeng hopes that in the future the company will build an ecological park integrating agriculture, forestry, and animal husbandry, release all the deer to range freely, and leverage the local landscape advantages to develop sightseeing tourism.