Internet-savvy "gold-collar" farmer Dai Xiangyang: selling tea online to help farmers get rich
In the online world, Dai Xiangyang showcases himself and his hometown to the fullest. With a fervent sincerity, he has not only sown the seeds of wealth for the villagers of Changxi in boundless cyberspace, but also won a piece of the sky for himself.
Taking Root Online
When a reporter interviewed Dai Xiangyang, the first thing he mentioned was the internet. He said that Ms. Lu, who runs a tea shop in Guangfeng County, had ordered 50 jin of special-grade tea through the internet, which had just been sent from the county postal shipping center. Changxi Village in Fuchun Town produces more than 3,000 jin of famous high-quality tea every year, all of which he sells to all parts of the country in this way...
Changxi Village, adjacent to Jingdezhen, is named for the long course of its small stream. Because it is located in a remote area with inconvenient transportation, the more than 600 farming households of Changxi still live by traditional farming.
In 2000, Dai Xiangyang, about to cross the threshold of "thirty," resolutely left the mountains with ideals of seeking knowledge and development, shouldered his pack alone and headed south to Guangdong, working while learning computer skills. From "drifting south" to "drifting north," after several years of "bumping and grinding," in 2004 Dai Xiangyang, then working in Beijing, finally ushered in a good space for development.
"Alone in a foreign land as a stranger." Amid busy work, a colleague's single word of praise for Wuyuan's scenery and products, or a single online purchase, made Dai Xiangyang's "wandering heart" feel the invisible call of his hometown. In 2005, Dai Xiangyang resolutely returned to Changxi and bought the village's first computer. At that time, Changxi Village did not yet have broadband installed, so Dai Xiangyang used telephone dial-up to access the internet, at a cost of as much as 4.5 yuan per hour, with monthly internet expenses alone reaching 200 yuan. Ignoring his wife's complaints, Dai Xiangyang threw himself wholeheartedly into the internet, built the Changxi Village website, and insisted on going online every day to learn while promoting Changxi's specialty products and scenery with pictures and text.
Changxi Village has rolling hills and ancient trees for cover, and above 800 m in altitude it abundantly produces high-quality high-mountain organic tea. At the end of 2005, less than a year after returning home, Dai Xiangyang began to conceive the idea of selling tea online.
"Honest business, quality speaks" and "not satisfied, return the goods." These were the promises Dai Xiangyang made to customers when promoting and selling his hometown's high-mountain tea online. On April 5, 2006, Mr. Zhou from Suzhou saw the tea promotion information posted by Dai Xiangyang online and, according to the previous year's listed price for "Wuyuan Xianzhi," transferred payment for 3 jin of tea into Dai Xiangyang's account. Unexpectedly, that year the tea market was strong, and the tea price differed by about 40 yuan per jin.
"I would rather lose out myself than break faith with others." The next day, Dai Xiangyang rushed to the county seat and sent Mr. Zhou 3 jin of "Wuyuan Xianzhi" by express mail. Dai Xiangyang lost 140 yuan selling tea online for the first time, but he won a good reputation. Mr. Zhou from Suzhou later traveled to Changxi; after asking about the tea market, he was deeply moved, and his relatives and friends all sent money to buy tea from Dai Xiangyang, becoming his regular customers.
One spreads to ten, ten spread to a hundred. Today, Dai Xiangyang has established stable customer groups not only in Suzhou, but also in Nanchang, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Beijing and other places.
Common Prosperity
Although located deep in the mountains of Changxi, Dai Xiangyang saw the dawn in online promotion, and the villagers also tasted the sweetness along with him.
Mr. Hu of the Nanchang Railway Bureau began establishing business contact with Dai Xiangyang online in 2006. Once he urgently needed 50 jin of "Wuyuan Xianzhi," while Dai Xiangyang had only a little more than 20 jin of Xianzhi produced in Changxi on hand. Dai Xiangyang rushed to the county tea market to buy some; although the appearance was no different and the price was more than 100 yuan cheaper, the liquor color and fragrance differed greatly. Dai Xiangyang did not buy inferior tea to pass off as good to the customer, but truthfully informed the other party. Mr. Hu was very moved and not only prepaid each year to order several dozen jin, or even more than 100 jin, of famous high-quality tea, but also traveled to Changxi to see the tea farmers picking and processing tea.
During this year's Spring Festival, although new tea had not yet come on the market, many customers had already called to inquire, sent deposits early, and placed orders with Dai Xiangyang online. They all said that Dai Xiangyang's tea was enjoyable to drink and reassuring to buy. As online demand increased, Dai Xiangyang purchased the villagers' tea and let the villagers sell tea out of the mountains without leaving home, earning a decent income.
In November 2008, the Changxi Village committee held a new term election, and Dai Xiangyang was elected village committee director by a high vote. From "internet addict" to village committee director, Dai Xiangyang played a "variation."
"I dare not forget the responsibility I bear as a Party member. I want to use online information to bring hope to the villagers and drive more people to increase income and become prosperous." In his inauguration speech, he also clearly stated that he would set up a separate account for his salary and, as needed, donate all his salary to the village's public welfare undertakings.
Dai Xiangyang put his promises into action. He united the village committee team and used the opportunity of new rural construction to thoroughly transform the appearance of Changxi Village. They successively built 13 garbage pools in the village, equipped 15 garbage bins, hired 2 sanitation cleaners, and established a long-term sanitation and cleaning mechanism for Changxi Village, ensuring that the village remained clean and hygienic. At the same time, houses built haphazardly along the stream were demolished, and poisoning and electrofishing in the stream were strictly prohibited, greatly improving the village's appearance.
Changxi has rolling hills and is picturesque in all four seasons. Especially in late autumn, the ancient path lined with red maples is a magnificent sight.
As batch after batch of tourists came attracted by its fame, Dai Xiangyang and some villagers with the means started "farmhouse leisure" businesses. Today, Changxi Village has developed 30 farmhouse inns with more than 280 beds, all uniformly posting information online, with unified pricing, unified registration, and unified accommodation arrangements in the village. The villagers gained real benefits from this and tried every possible way to thank Dai Xiangyang, but he declined them all. Dai Xiangyang often says to the villagers: "Receiving the guests well is the greatest support you can give me!" Dai Xiangyang set up the "Xiangyang Photography Home" at his own house, handing all 40 beds to his wife and his hired brother-in-law to manage, while he himself devoted his energy to promoting and developing Changxi Village.
A Declaration of Integrity
"Dear tea friends: I am Dai Xiangyang, a tea farmer from 'China's Most Beautiful Village - Wuyuan.' The tea I sell is all high-mountain organic tea picked above 800 m in altitude. It is completely handmade, with no middleman profit involved. Affordable prices are the hallmark of our farmhouse tea!" Dai Xiangyang successively set up blogs on Xinhua Net, Baidu, NetEase, Sina, 21st Century and many other websites, issuing his own declaration of integrity.
In June 2009, Alibaba's China market integrity report for the first quarter of 2009 treated Dai Xiangyang's online sales of green tea as a model of integrity: "Integrity has become one of the essential qualities of a successful online merchant. More and more members have achieved success by relying on their own philosophy of honest business. For example, Dai Xiangyang of Jiangxi Wuyuan Changxi Green Tea Company insisted on winning through quality and keeping faith with honest business, raising tea sales from less than 100 jin per year in the past to over 1,000 jin per year now. Because of the philosophy of honest business, Changxi Green Tea Company has now become an online brand of Wuyuan tourism farmhouse leisure." Now, as long as you search for Wuyuan green tea or Dai Xiangyang on Baidu, you can find many reports and information about him.
In late autumn of 2010, Dai Xiangyang brought his online energy into full play. Every day, tourists came in an endless stream from Shanghai, Jiangsu, Wuhan, and Zhejiang to Changxi to admire the maples and red leaves, with the peak exceeding 4,000 people. To arrange well the guests who booked rooms and meals online, he began answering calls at 6 a.m. every day, arranged lunch at noon, served as a volunteer guide in the afternoon, and assigned beds in the evening. When encountering a tourist peak, he also had to go onto the roads to direct traffic, arrange floor bedding at farmhouses, and even book rooms for tourists in nearby towns or the county seat. Dai Xiangyang said that tourists come from thousands of miles away for him and Changxi, and he cannot let tourists have worries beyond their travels.