Xingtai migrant worker seizes early opportunity by starting a business with small walnuts
No one knows when it started, but a new "plaything" called Mahe walnut (Wenwan walnut) became popular. As more people play with Mahe walnuts, growing them has become a new money-making industry. He Zengyong, a villager from Dongpang Village, Neiqiu County, Xingtai, has embarked on the road to wealth by growing Mahe walnuts.
In 2011, He Zengyong, who was working away from home, encountered a "strange thing": he saw an ugly walnut that looked worse than the ones sold by the jin back in his hometown, yet it could actually be sold by the pair, and at a high price - some could even equal several months of his income. After asking around in detail, he learned that this outrageously priced walnut was called Mahe walnut, not for eating, but for playing with.
"Since they are all walnuts, can I go back home and grow Mahe walnuts to make money?" After much deliberation, He Zengyong decided to return to his hometown to grow Mahe walnuts and take this distinctive cultivation path to prosperity.
Mahe walnut, also called "Wenwan walnut" (literati walnut), because of its thick and hard shell, beautiful shell pattern, and unique fruit shape, is often made into exquisite handicrafts or directly used as a plaything for middle-aged and elderly people to stimulate blood circulation and loosen joints. A pair of Mahe walnuts can sell for anywhere from one hundred to tens of thousands of yuan. The history of Mahe walnuts as playthings can be traced back to the Han Dynasty. It is said that Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty greatly appreciated Mahe walnuts. Emperor Qianlong was not only a great connoisseur of walnuts, but is also said to have written a poem praising them: "Spinning sun and moon in the palm, time seems to flow backward. Qi and blood surge throughout the body, when will the hair turn white?"
In order to grow Mahe walnuts well, he made several trips to Laishui, Handan, as well as Shanxi, Shaanxi and other places to visit and investigate, learning the techniques of planting and cultivating Mahe walnuts. After returning to his hometown, he transferred and contracted 100 mu of barren hillside from his fellow villagers, raised more than 500,000 yuan in funds from various sources, prepared the land, built nurseries, dug wells and channeled water, and specially invited technical experts from Laishui, the country's famous Mahe walnut growing area, to provide technical guidance. Soon, the city's largest Mahe walnut cultivation base was built by the village.
At first, after walnut trees transplanted from other places were grafted with Mahe walnuts, the survival rate was very low. So He Zengyong set aside ten mu from the transferred land, built a Mahe walnut nursery, and introduced 13 fine Mahe walnut varieties from all over the country, beginning to cultivate Mahe walnut saplings suitable for the local area.
"From the very beginning - seedling raising, grafting, transplanting - to being able to bear fruit takes five years. If you directly transplant two-year-old walnut saplings, it can greatly shorten the time; they can bear fruit in two years, catching the early train to wealth." He Zengyong said.
Hard work pays off. After four years of development, He Zengyong's 100 mu of Mahe walnut trees now include 13 fine Mahe walnut varieties from all over the country, such as Sizuolou, Wanghu Shizitou, Yuanbao Shizitou, Panlongwen, and Daci. He has cultivated more than 20,000 Mahe walnut saplings and more than 2,300 Mahe walnut trees, which will bear fruit by 2017 and will bring him at least over a million in income. He Zengyong, with his eye on the market, uses these small Mahe walnuts to "juggle" great wealth.