Hunan Ningxiang County: A Farmer Makes Good Money Raising Huazhu Pigs with Unusual Methods
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 has one trick after another for raising pigs: he built a climbing wall and laid a running track in 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, achieves success in his pig-raising business by breaking all the rules.
On March 6, 2016, more than 70 families from Changsha came to Ningxiang County for a trip, and their destination might be beyond your imagination.
Rock climbing is no easy game even for adults, so what can the many children from these families play? This 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 declare, begin.
These small Huazhu pigs are all of the Ningxiang Huazhu breed, unique to Ningxiang County. To ensure the children's safety, the selected Ningxiang Huazhu pigs are only one or two months old. Because they often come into contact with people, these small Huazhu pigs are not afraid of humans.
Tourist: Go, go, go!
Besides the piglet race, an activity for bathing the piglets is also prepared here.
Tourist: This is still relatively rare. But the piglets are so cute, and there is a shared time for them to be together with the children.
Xie Ming is the person in charge of this pig farm. Raising Ningxiang Huazhu 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, of a Ningxiang Huazhu pig breeding enterprise in Ningxiang County, Changsha City, Hunan Province: At the time we all laughed at him. Messing around. This is a bizarre way of doing things. What is the use of doing it this way? This is just making a gimmick. We thought he was just making a gimmick.
Zhang Chao, of a Huazhu pig breeding enterprise in Ningxiang County, Changsha City, Hunan Province: At the time, we counted as insiders. He entered this industry from outside, and feeding pigs with cooked food was a relatively big challenge. Everyone was waiting to see him make a fool of himself, to see whether he could actually keep going.
Xie Ming was born in 1983. When he was in university, his tuition was borrowed by his father. During university, Xie Ming served as president of the school student union. After graduation, he entered a state-owned construction company in Tianjin, and by 2011 he had risen to 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 Xie Ming's hometown, Dachengqiao Town. Over the past few decades, the local area mainly relied on the coal economy. The whole town once had 7 coal mines, and at the peak 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 City, Hunan Province: With the introduction of the national policy on closing coal mines, our coal mines were closed. Then we faced a path of transformational development, so in terms of transformational development, we focused on transitioning toward modern agriculture.
Xie Ming felt there was a business opportunity here. He found several fellow townsmen in the restaurant 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 restaurant industry, and we need these good raw materials. Including this agricultural project, including agricultural leisure, at that time some of his relatively systematic ideas came out.
Xie Ming: With such a good environment, and the major policies are also very good, and local policies can keep up as well. So we talked in great detail, and we talked very thoroughly. So through these aspects (of consideration), I made up my mind to come back and do it.
After the 2013 Spring Festival, Xie Ming resigned from his job and partnered 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. He believed 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 suddenly felt cold all over.
Reporter Chang Kun: Why? What did you see?
Tang Yukun, shareholder of Xie Ming's company: Basically nothing could be seen, just water. This roadbed had already collapsed for about 20-some meters, completely collapsed, probably to that position. Then the flood-control ditch above was about this wide, and about 40 to 50 meters of it had collapsed.
These are photos taken by Xie Ming with his mobile phone after the rainstorm. In the past, the local area all planted rice and was not afraid of rainstorms. But after Xie Ming switched to growing vegetables and raising fish, he did not consider the issue of flood discharge. All 300 mu of farmland and 5 fish ponds were flooded, and the newly built infrastructure 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 disheartening time. During that period I had some insomnia, and even at two or three in the morning I still could not fall asleep.
Starting a business with the shareholders' money, Xie Ming already carried a great deal of pressure. Now, because of his insufficient preparation for the rainstorm, such a large loss had been caused, 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 filled with mixed emotions.