Liu Yingzhou, the "Father of White Tangerines," Leads His Fellow Villagers onto the Road to Prosperity

In the depths of winter, Huanghua Town in Yongshan County, Yunnan, is rich with fruit. Looking out across the fields, golden tangerines hang heavy on the branches, a breathtaking sight. This is a scene of abundant harvest for the hardworking and kind people of Huanghua, who make use of the fertile land resources and ample heat and sunlight of the dry-hot valley area of the Jinsha River to develop their industry according to local conditions. Huanghua Town is a successful model of industrial development in Yongshan County. Its white tangerines, navel oranges and loquats, with their beautiful color, delicious flavor and large size, have become famous fine fruits far and wide, while its mellow green Sichuan peppercorns and fragrant amomum are sold far beyond the province.

The rise of these pillar industries, in addition to the strong support of governments at all levels, owes much to a group of daring leaders of the agricultural industrial revolution. Liu Yingzhou, the "Father of White Tangerines," is the most representative among them.

Liu Yingzhou introduced and cultivated white tangerines, bringing prosperity to his fellow villagers, and is affectionately called the "Father of White Tangerines" by the people.

Liu Yingzhou was the first person in Huanghua Town, Yongshan, to dare to eat the crab in the industrial revolution. Along the riverside area of Huanghua Town, red tangerines have a long history of cultivation, but as the variety degenerated, the people's income grew worse year after year.

In order to improve the variety and increase yields, in 1988 Liu Yingzhou made a special trip to the Chongqing Citrus Research Institute to investigate. After on-site observation and comparing the climate, soil and other conditions of the two places, Liu Yingzhou boldly introduced white tangerines for trial planting. Loosening the soil, fertilizing, planting seedlings, watering... Liu Yingzhou tended the introduced white tangerines as carefully as if he were caring for children.

3 years later, his "experimental field" brought a delightful return: white tangerines with bright color, large size and delicious flavor appeared in Huanghua's Shatian. Compared with the old red tangerine variety, white tangerines had clear advantages in yield, color, size, taste and price, and once brought to the street they stood out as the finest and sold briskly on the market.

After the trial planting succeeded, Liu Yingzhou gradually grafted and improved more than 10 mu of his own old-variety red tangerines. At the same time, he generously shared the fruits of his development with the local people. While supplying seedlings, he also taught citrus grafting techniques to the cleverer people in the village.

In just five or six years, Lao Liu's white tangerines were the first to be widely promoted in the Shatian villager group of Huangge Community, and all of the local 200-plus mu of red tangerines were renamed and converted to white tangerines.

In order to extend white tangerines to other villages, Liu Yingzhou also took the 10 or so grafting "local experts" he had personally trained to other villages to help the people improve old varieties.

Liu Yingzhou built his fortune by growing white tangerines. Starting in 1991, he set up his own nursery, selling nearly 10,000 white tangerine seedlings each year to local people for planting. At that time, just from raising seedlings, Liu Yingzhou could earn more than 30,000 yuan a year, making him a well-known "well-off household" in the area.

Of his 3 children, one graduated from Yunnan Orthopedics Vocational School and works at PICC in Yuxi; one graduated from Yunnan University of Finance and Economics and works at Yunnan Tongli United Accounting Firm; and one graduated from Yunnan Honghe University and works at Yunnan Kaiyuan Automobile Company.

"In earlier years, when we three sisters were studying, the expenses each year were very large, and my parents supported us entirely by growing white tangerines." Liu Yingzhou's second daughter, Liu Jiajia, was proud of her parents.