Fancy pig farming makes it easier for him to make money
This is an amusement park, and it is also a pig farm. The owner here is Xie Ming. At 28, Xie Ming became a deputy general manager of a construction company with an annual salary of more than 500,000 yuan, but at 30 he resigned and returned to his village to start a business. He keeps coming up with tricks for raising pigs: he built a climbing wall and a running track on the pig farm, and the pigs he raises cost more than the market price. Many people cannot make sense of his methods, but the results are surprisingly good. See how Xie Ming of Ningxiang County, Hunan Province, breaks the mold to build his pig-raising business.
On March 6, 2016, more than 70 families from Changsha came to visit Ningxiang County, and their destination might surprise you.
Rock climbing is not an easy game even for adults, so what can all these families' children play? That is also what makes this place most attractive. Besides rock climbing, there is a piglet running track specially prepared for children, because this is actually a pig farm.
Xie Ming: Are you ready?
Tourist: Always ready.
Xie Ming: I announce, start.
These little pigs are all Ningxiang spotted pigs, a breed unique to Ningxiang County. To ensure the children's safety, the Ningxiang spotted pigs selected are only one or two months old. Because they often come into contact with people, these little pigs are not afraid of people.
Tourist: Go, go, go!
Besides the piglet race, a piglet bathing activity is also prepared here.
Tourist: This kind of thing is still relatively rare. But the piglets are so cute and the children get to spend time together with them.
Xie Ming is the person in charge of this pig farm. Raising Ningxiang spotted pigs is a traditional industry locally, but Xie Ming's approach is unexpected: he turned the pig farm into an amusement park, and this is not the only unexpected thing he has done.
Bu Yujian, a Ningxiang spotted pig breeding enterprise in Ningxiang County, Changsha, Hunan Province: We all laughed at him back then. Messing around. This is a bizarre way of doing things. What is the use of doing it this way? This is just gimmickry. We thought he was just doing gimmicks.
Zhang Chao, a spotted pig breeding enterprise in Ningxiang County, Changsha, Hunan Province: At the time, we counted as insiders. He entered this industry from outside, and feeding pigs with cooked food was a fairly big challenge. Everyone was waiting to see him make a fool of himself, to see whether he could hold on at all.
Xie Ming was born in 1983. When he was in university, even his tuition was borrowed by his father. During university, Xie Ming served as chairman of the school student union. After graduation, he entered a state-owned construction company in Tianjin, and by 2011 he had reached the position of deputy general manager, with an annual salary of more than 500,000. However, when Xie Ming went home for the Spring Festival in 2013, he heard a piece of news.
This is Dachengqiao Town, Xie Ming's hometown. Over the past few decades, the area mainly relied on the coal economy. The whole town once had 7 coal mines, and at peak employment there were more than 5,000 workers. But in 2012, the situation took a sharp turn for the worse. All 7 local coal mines had been closed.
Yu Hongjian, Party Secretary of Dachengqiao Town, Ningxiang County, Changsha, Hunan Province: With the introduction of the national coal mine closure policy, our coal mines were closed. So we faced a path of transformation and development, and in terms of transformation and development, we focused on transforming toward modern agriculture.
Xie Ming felt there was a business opportunity here. He found several fellow townsmen in the catering industry to discuss the matter, and 2 of them hit it off with him immediately.
Shareholder of Xie Ming's company: When he talked with us, he wanted to come back and do agriculture. It fits very well with our catering industry, because we need good raw materials. Including this agricultural project, including agricultural leisure, his relatively systematic ideas came out at that time.
Xie Ming: With such a good environment, and the major policies are also very good, and local policies keep up as well. So we talked in great detail and very thoroughly. So after considering these aspects, I made up my mind to come back and do it.
After the 2013 Spring Festival, Xie Ming resigned from his job and cooperated with 2 fellow townsmen to invest in agriculture. He first transferred 300 mu of land, growing vegetables and raising fish at the foot of the mountain, and building a farm on the hillside to raise pigs. Years of corporate management experience, the trust of investors, and the government's policy support all made Xie Ming feel confident that his business would surely succeed. But Xie Ming never expected that this seemingly flawless plan had a loophole.
On the Dragon Boat Festival in 2014, an ordinary rainfall suddenly turned into a rainstorm at night.
Xie Ming: Here we have mountains on both sides, and the water level rises very quickly. With mountains on both sides, when it rains, all the water from the mountains comes down.
Liu Xiangyang, deputy general manager of Xie Ming's company: On top of the pond embankment, the water had risen very high.
Reporter Chang Kun: How high was the water level where you were standing at the time?
Liu Xiangyang, deputy general manager of Xie Ming's company: About this high, right at this position. The pond was completely flooded, and the fish were washed away. The vegetables over there were all flooded and washed away.
Tang Yukun, shareholder of Xie Ming's company: After coming over, people instantly felt cold.
Reporter Chang Kun: Why? What did you see?
Tang Yukun, shareholder of Xie Ming's company: Basically you could not see anything, just water. This roadbed had already collapsed for about 20-odd meters, all collapsed, it seemed up to that position. And then a flood-control ditch above, about this wide, had collapsed for about 40 or 50 meters.
These are photos taken by Xie Ming with his mobile phone after the rainstorm. In the past, the area all grew rice and was not afraid of rainstorms. But after Xie Ming switched to growing vegetables and raising fish, he had not considered the issue of flood discharge. All 300 mu of farmland and 5 fish ponds were flooded, and the infrastructure that had just been built was also damaged. Xie Ming lost more than 1 million yuan.
Xie Ming's wife Liu Ting: When it was just taking shape, the water washed it away all at once, back to square one overnight. That was the most disheartened time. During that period I even had some insomnia; at two or three in the morning I still could not sleep.
Starting a business with the shareholders' money, Xie Ming already carried a lot of pressure. Now, because he had not prepared enough for the rainstorm, it caused such a big loss, and Xie Ming felt very guilty. During those days, standing on the embankment and looking at the water level that had not yet receded, Xie Ming was full of mixed feelings.
Reporter Chang Kun: Did you still trust him at that time?
Tang Yukun, shareholder of Xie Ming's company: I trusted him.
Reporter Chang Kun: Why?
Tang Yukun, shareholder of Xie Ming's company: He has professional qualities; he does not panic when things happen, he is organized, and when directing he arranges things very uniquely. So I could still see hope. Neither of us had experienced this before, and in the early stage you definitely have to pay some tuition.
In order not to let down the expectations of his family and shareholders, after the flood receded, Xie Ming immediately organized people to devote themselves to rebuilding. This time, he was determined to get every detail right.
During the reporter's interview, a rainfall also happened to come, and Xie Ming hurried to the farmland without time to grab an umbrella.