Zhang Huaizhong, a leader in getting rich: Returning home in glory without forgetting his roots

Zhang Huaizhong, a young man from Huangzhuang Village, Xiaojing Town, Dongming County, returned home to start a business and alleviate poverty. He built an e-commerce industrial park and an agricultural production base, which not only opened up a path to prosperity through his own entrepreneurship but also provided more job opportunities for poor households.

Tied to his hometown, he never forgot his roots on the road to wealth

Zhang Huaizhong, 35 years old, was born into an ordinary rural family in Huangzhuang Village, Xiaojing Town. As a post-80s generation member with dreams and a love for striving, the quick-witted man had been working hard abroad. After years of effort, Zhang Huaizhong's fixed assets had reached 10 million yuan.

However, whenever he returned home to visit relatives, Zhang Huaizhong always found that most people in his hometown were left-behind elderly and left-behind children. The young laborers in the village had all gone out to work. Although the village environment had become more beautiful, the villagers still could not develop the economy well. He saw it and kept it in his heart, unable to let it go, always thinking about returning to his hometown to do something for his fellow villagers. In 2014, with his family's encouragement, Zhang Huaizhong resolutely decided to return home and start a business.

Based on reality, developing ecological agriculture

Once he had the idea of returning home to start a business and lead villagers to prosperity, Zhang Huaizhong acted on it immediately.

Drawing on years of business experience, Zhang Huaizhong believed that to get rich through agriculture, scale was essential. To dispel the villagers' doubts, in the spring of 2014, he paid out of his own pocket more than 1 million yuan to build the Huangzhuang Ecological Agriculture Demonstration Park covering 60 mu, constructing 20 high-standard greenhouses and planting 50 mu of green off-season watermelons and melons, with an annual output value of more than 1 million yuan.

To promote industrialized and large-scale development, in 2015, the Ecological Agriculture Demonstration Park cooperated with Jinke Watermelon Cooperative. Following the "cooperative + base + farmers" production and operation model, they implemented unified supply of improved seeds, unified production procedures, unified field management, and unified sales organization, basically forming a one-stop watermelon production and operation mechanism integrating production, service, and sales. It brought together fine melon and vegetable production, factory seedling cultivation, new variety display, and new technology promotion, becoming an important base in Xiaojing Town for fine agricultural product display, scientific and technological research and development promotion, quality seedling supply, and farmer technical training.

To help local poor people escape poverty and become prosperous, Zhang Huaizhong signed poverty alleviation agreements with 49 poor households in the village, absorbing poor households to work in the Ecological Agriculture Demonstration Park, increasing household annual income by more than 10,000 yuan on average. At the same time, he provided them with free planting technology training so they could learn more new techniques.

Adapting to development, building a platform for prosperity

For long-term development and to help more agricultural and sideline products leave the village and enter the market, Zhang Huaizhong decided to adapt to the demands of the times and start with the e-commerce industry that was gradually rising at the time.

In early 2015, Zhang Huaizhong raised more than 10 million yuan from various sources and built the Xiaojing Town E-commerce Industrial Park with a building area of 8,000 sq m east of Huangzhuang Village and on the east side of Donglan Highway. The main project has now been completed and is expected to be put into use in the first half of 2016. It can accommodate more than 100 e-commerce businesses and more than 500 jobs and entrepreneurship positions. The e-commerce industrial park signed an industrial poverty alleviation cooperation agreement with the town government. During operation, it will give priority to arranging employment for poor households, give priority to purchasing agricultural and sideline products from poor households, and provide free production technology services for poor households. Within three years, it can help 230 poor households and 860 poor people in surrounding villages such as Huangzhuang and Ligang escape poverty.