Young man returns home to start a business and develops a breeding and sightseeing farm, blazing a trail to prosperity

  The Belt and Road, a young man's road to prosperity by returning home to start a business and develop a breeding and agricultural sightseeing farm. Hu Yong is a young man from a rural area who has had a dream since childhood: to return home and build a career with what he has learned, so that he can be close to his parents and at the same time lead the villagers to prosperity together. In June 2014, Hu Yong, 25, had already graduated about 2 years earlier and had stayed at a foreign company doing sales work ever since graduation. Because he was driven and able to endure hardship, he created good results for the company. At this time, he also welcomed a promotion opportunity in his professional life. Standing at this crossroads, Hu Yong felt conflicted: should he return to his hometown, or continue staying at the company to work? The future life was very unclear……

In May 2015, after just 11 months, Hu Yong had put down roots in his hometown, started a rabbit breeding business, and even had a 100-mu agricultural park. Nowadays, quite a few people come for tourism and sightseeing.

  Returning home to start a business: giving up the iron rice bowl to realize a dream

  Hu Yong graduated from Hunan Agricultural University in 2012, majoring in animal science. The young man is young and handsome, full of sunny vitality, but his slightly youthful face makes it hard to believe that he is the owner of a 100-mu agricultural park. “The agricultural park has already opened. Welcome everyone to come and play at my agricultural park, haha!” This is the optimistic Hu Yong; from his smiling face, you cannot see the bittersweet struggles of entrepreneurship.

  His family conditions were ordinary, and his parents were ordinary farmers. In order to earn money to lighten his parents' burden and also make his own life a bit more comfortable, when Hu Yong was a freshman, he and a friend opened a small shop in the dormitory. By his sophomore year, he went outside the school to sell barbecue. Later, in his junior year, he worked as a promoter at a photo studio company for several months. After graduation, he found a job at a foreign company with decent pay, doing sales work, earning more than 5,000 yuan a month. With some performance commissions, his income approached 10,000 yuan. Although this kind of job gave Hu Yong economic satisfaction, Hu Yong always had an idea: he wanted to return home to start a business. Nowadays, the market for rural development is very good, and what he studied was precisely agricultural animal science. “I might as well just go home and start a business myself. This has also been my dream for many years.” Hu Yong had long had this plan, and he told this idea to Sun Hong, who was from the same hometown, the same school, and the same grade. The two hit it off immediately.

  Rabbit breeding: unwilling to be a white-collar worker, willing to be a livestock farmer

  They had the idea of starting a business, but no entrepreneurship project. As time passed day by day, this worried the two of them to death. Villagers said that there was nothing good to do in the countryside now. Take breeding, for example: many people raise pigs, cattle, and sheep, so there was no highlight at all, and there was not much money to be made. These words reminded Hu Yong. Indeed, ordinary breeding projects did not have much market potential; only those with distinctive features and rarely seen in rural areas had a market. After a week of research and searching, Hu Yong made an amazing discovery: Sima rabbit breeding. This type belongs to small livestock specialty breeding, and ordinary crops can be used to feed them. At present, in consumer cities, many people like to eat this kind of rabbit meat. It has relatively high nutritional value and a tender texture, and is favored by consumers. The more Hu Yong thought about it, the happier he became. There was not yet any such breeding in the township, so he told Sun Hong about the business idea, and Sun Hong also agreed after hearing it. After many discussions, considering that some land in the village was abandoned, which made it even more suitable for developing breeding, the two finally chose rabbit breeding as their entrepreneurship project.

  They acted as soon as they decided. After carefully investigating the potential market, breeding technology, rabbit breeds, and other aspects, Hu Yong and Sun Hong borrowed money from relatives and friends and took out loans, investing more than 100,000 yuan in total. They contracted 50 mu of land in the village and began the entrepreneurship of building a breeding park. The investment was large, and the pressure was also great. Hu Yong said, “At that time I thought, what undertaking has no risk? If you want to succeed, you have to do it first and talk later.”

Planning, clearing wasteland, building rabbit sheds, and planting grass, he and Sun Hong soaked in the fields together with the workers, so tired every day that their backs and waists ached. “Rabbit breeding requires infrastructure construction, fencing, field plowing and grass planting, and all of it must be done personally.”

  Bold positioning: not only raising rabbits, but also establishing sightseeing agriculture

  Hu Yong and Sun Hong's efforts were finally not in vain. In one month, they got the site ready. Although it could not be called luxurious construction, for the initial stage of breeding it could still be considered a successful beginning. The two first introduced 50 groups of Sima rabbits for breeding. In the breeding area, the two were still busy and happy, bringing fresh vegetables and radishes from the fields for the rabbits, and carrying baskets of sweet potatoes from the cellar. The feed troughs were filled to the brim. Watching the rabbits scrambling to eat these foods in the pens, Hu Yong and Sun Hong both wore smiles all over their faces…..

  The rabbits grew day by day. After 4 months, the breeding rabbits began to reproduce one after another, and the number gradually increased. Then the worrying problem came again. “If things develop like this, in half a year the rabbits will grow to around 3,000, and after that the rabbits will increase exponentially. Sales have become a major problem. How should we develop sales channels?” Hu Yong pondered. Thinking of these things, he could not sleep for several days and could not eat well. The two were anxious. When Hu Yong's father and mother saw the situation of the two, they were also very worried about their health, so they discussed and decided that the old couple would take care of the breeding, and as for the market, Hu Yong and Sun Hong would go out to expand sales channels. The next day, Sun Hong organized materials online and contacted some farmhouse restaurants and farms. Hu Yong drove the family's minivan, and the two loaded some meat rabbits and set off……

  At first, they hit a wall. These bosses in the catering industry were not very willing to accept such a product, worrying that they could not sell it. Out of helplessness, since the rabbits had already been brought out and were not easy to transport back, they could only say to leave them at the shops first and settle payment after they were sold. Only then did these shop owners reluctantly agree. Hu Yong and Sun Hong returned home listlessly……

  A few days later, several shops called Hu Yong and asked whether there were still rabbits in stock. Hearing such news, the two jumped up with excitement. The market was finally opened. In the end, several hotels were also willing to sign long-term supply contracts with them.

  The story of Hu Yong and Sun Hong had already spread locally, and the villagers all wanted to join their breeding operation. The two decided to provide rabbit breeds to ordinary people for free, letting everyone breed them, and then buy back the meat rabbits that were ready for market according to market conditions. Soon, this matter attracted the attention of the city TV station and newspaper media. Facing reporters, Hu Yong and Sun Hong were very shy. Sun Hong smiled and said, “Our shared dream is to go back to the countryside and do something. We studied this major, and doing breeding can also be considered our own line of work. Doing these things for ordinary people is nothing much.” Immediately afterward, the reporter asked Hu Yong what plans and intentions he had for the future. Hu Yong told the reporter, “While doing breeding, we are preparing our next plan, which is to do a rural tourism project, start the tourism and sightseeing agriculture of our village, and develop the breeding park into a village breeding and sightseeing agricultural park. This will make it easier to drive the development of our village's specialty breeding undertaking”……

  Hu Yong and Sun Hong's second idea finally began. The two contracted another 50 mu of land in the village to develop facilities for the tourism project. The park has a barbecue area, an entertainment area, a rabbit meat restaurant, a fishing area, a plantation, and phase two of the breeding park. Their hard work was not in vain. Although the basic conditions were not yet complete, the sightseeing agricultural park still opened to the public early. Tourists coming for sightseeing were endless, and cars filled both sides of the road. In the breeding area, friends were teasing a group of Sima rabbits for fun. In the barbecue area, smoke rose from roasting whole rabbits. The picking area was full of crowds. Going further in, there were also rows of farmhouses, a camping ground, leisure fishing, and more. The sightseeing agricultural park had very rich activities, and friends carrying out team activities in the park were playing enthusiastically……

  Seeing this, we could not help but feel something, and suddenly remembered a line from a song: “Stay brave together, and let memories become something to be proud of. The world is before your eyes; dreams are realized with sweat. As long as you have firm faith, the future can be seen.” For people with entrepreneurial dreams, as long as they have firm faith and the courage to challenge themselves, dreams will become reality. We also wish Hu Yong and Sun Hong's agricultural park business more and more success!