The pathfinder to prosperity in the watermelon fields: Feng Leping, deputy to the National People's Congress

Feng Leping (first from left) introduces watermelon handicrafts.

When it comes to Feng Leping's name, perhaps not many people are familiar with it. But when it comes to the watermelons of Panggezhuang in Daxing, Beijing, many people will surely give a thumbs-up. Feng Leping is the "behind-the-scenes figure" who made Panggezhuang watermelons famous far and wide. Feng Leping is known as the "Watermelon Queen of Daxing" and the "Watermelon Growing King." She is not only the "leader" driving the development of the Panggezhuang watermelon industry, but also the "pathfinder" leading the villagers of Panggezhuang toward a better life.

    Through wind and rain, never forgetting the original aspiration

Thirty years ago, Feng Leping was still a government worker. A grassroots civil servant with an "iron rice bowl" caught the era of "jumping into the sea" of business, and someone with drive like Feng Leping was destined to "jump into the sea" and become a "wave rider." "It's just my nature, I suppose. At the time I had an impulse, a determination to 'jump into the sea.' Our generation happened to catch Deng Xiaoping's era of reform and opening up. At that time quite a lot of people 'jumped into the sea,' and I was one of them. I was unwilling to do the rather routine, day-after-day work in government."

Thirty years ago, she had an opportunity to work in government, yet she insisted on resigning to "jump into the sea." "Everyone around me went crazy, thinking this person had a mental problem. In the 1980s, working in government was something people envied. Everyone thought this kid must be a bit crazy, with no idea what she wanted to do." Feng Leping said that during that period her family did not understand either, and there was a feeling of being somewhat "crushed." Later, Feng Leping took a "roundabout way to save the nation." "I persuaded my husband. One of us was in government and the other in the supply and marketing system. If I was going to 'jump into the sea,' someone had to go with me, so we both resigned and jumped into the sea together. Looking back now, it was the courage of youth. In your twenties and thirties, to realize your own value, you still need a bit of pursuit."

Feng Leping recalled that what truly moved her were two pieces of news she saw in the newspaper in 1992: Shandong apples were packaged and brought to market, selling for a high price; and Beiwu in Shunyi grew greenhouse watermelons and achieved good returns. During the slack farming season, Feng Leping went to Shandong and Shunyi to learn from their experience. What she learned there was to grade and package products and to make full use of technology. Panggezhuang, by contrast, still used the traditional sales model: after the melons ripened, people pushed a small cart to the roadside to sell them, good and bad piled together, selling for a few mao when business was good and just a few fen when it was not. Although Panggezhuang was poor, it had natural conditions uniquely suited to growing melons. Feng Leping realized that the villagers were all guarding a "golden rice bowl," but their mindset was backward and they did not know how to make the "golden rice bowl" produce money.

Feng Leping recalled that the hardest thing about starting her business back then was the lack of funds. "I rallied my family. I said, I have sales ability, so all of you just grow the watermelons well. I talked big, but to be honest, I really had no money." "When the strong wind was blowing, I went everywhere to borrow money. At the time I went back to my parents' home to borrow money. My father gave me his own private savings. Later the newspaper reported it, saying Old Feng had taken all of her father's and her family's money. When my husband heard about it, he got anxious and said no one does things the way I do." In the spring of 1993, Feng Leping took 6000 yuan pooled by her family and set up Panggezhuang's first watermelon greenhouse.

Feng Leping shows watermelon doll tourist souvenirs.

With funding solved and products solved, sales were also a difficult problem facing Feng Leping. After the watermelons in the greenhouse ripened the first year, Feng Leping imitated what the Beiwu people did and pushed the early-ripening watermelons to the roadside, mustering the courage to sell them at more than 1 yuan per jin, and the sales result was not bad. Later she simply sold them by the piece, with large melons going for more than ten or twenty-some yuan each. That year, Feng Leping made a net profit of 7000 yuan from one greenhouse of watermelons.

Feng Leping also encountered quite a few difficulties on the road to sales. "We promoted our own products, going into various work units and knocking on people's doors to sell, and I felt quite helpless about it myself. At the beginning I drove a small wheelbarrow, then rode a bicycle, and later drove a van. After that, I drove a car. Now there is the internet too. These experiences are still unforgettable to this day."

Speaking of young people today who are "struggling through" on the road to starting their own businesses, Feng Leping still believes that when they want to accomplish something, they must first think it through clearly. Once they have thought it through, they should do it while they are still young.

From small to large: the sails of Panggezhuang's road to happiness are rising

Feng Leping now serves as chairman of the Beijing Leping Watermelon and Muskmelon Professional Cooperative. According to her, the cooperative originally consisted of only six farming households, all of them her own relatives. "At that time I was just a young wife in her twenties or thirties, and people thought this kid was a bit unreliable. So at the time I organized my family members to work together."

For two consecutive years, Feng Leping's watermelons all sold for good prices and her income increased. "During that period, my family simply became a popular household inside and outside the village, and I became a focus figure too, with an endless stream of people coming to learn from us and seeking help at our door, keeping me so busy from morning to night that I had no idle time. Even so, I was secretly happy inside, because I saw the dawn of prosperity for the villagers. From then on, more and more farming households took the initiative to seek me out to grow greenhouse watermelons, growing from the initial 6 households slowly to more than ten, then dozens, then hundreds."

Feng Leping gives a thumbs-up to "Youth Voice."

From the day she started her business, Feng Leping took root among the farmers, and helping the folks of her hometown become prosperous is her greatest wish. "My father is an old Party member, and he often said that my becoming prosperous was the result of the villagers' support." Feng Leping told reporters that her father wrote her eight characters: survive by quality, aspire to enrich the people. She took these eight characters as her motto and had them inlaid above the cooperative's main gate, measuring herself against them at all times.

It is understood that the Leping Cooperative does not only pursue economic benefits; in the main watermelon and muskmelon production areas such as Beizang Village in Panggezhuang and Yufa Town, it also assists more than 10 impoverished families each year, helping them solve practical difficulties and embark on the road to prosperity. Driven by our cooperative, 53% of the contracted households had incomes exceeding the local average.

After the establishment of the professional cooperative, Feng Leping said the biggest change was that farmers felt they had an organization. The previous state of disorderly operation changed. "Now the biggest improvement is that they realize agriculture can have a brand, agriculture can have packaging, it can put on clothes. Now our products are a series. The products have a brand, and we have specialty stores and also e-commerce. Bound together, they form a community of shared interests, and everyone can see hope."

Good quality is Panggezhuang watermelon's own advantage, but in Feng Leping's view, if their watermelons are to continue leading, they must also take the path of innovation. Feng Leping told reporters that compared with the past, the biggest change now is still in melon-growing techniques. "Traditional watermelons grow on the ground, while today's watermelons grow on trees. The original melons grew lying on the ground, while now they grow standing up. The original melons grew spread flat, while now they grow on the vines." Not only that, Feng Leping also led her employees in developing watermelons into an industry that allows on-the-spot eating and picking, combining picking with visiting, and it has also taken wing with "Internet Plus," using the internet for sales.

The lives of the folks in Panggezhuang have improved, but Feng Leping has an even bigger goal: to build this industry belt into China's watermelon expo park, "one that allows picking, sightseeing and hands-on experience, and can integrate with multiple industries. We have set a three-year goal, hoping to become more internationalized and highly integrated. We will integrate the traditional watermelon industry with the cultural industry, real estate, finance and the internet industry to build a full watermelon industry chain."