With one leg shorter than the other, he walked out a path to a prosperous life

These days, Jiang Qishan, a villager of Shengyi Village, Shancheng Town, Taining County, is very busy. The tea from his factory is selling well, and he is organizing employees to bag and pack the roasted tea and send it to markets in various places. For half a month he has been living in the factory and has not gone home.

Although every day is spent in busyness, Jiang Qishan feels very fulfilled. His years of entrepreneurial experience have made him deeply understand that only through hard work can there be harvest, and only then can the road of entrepreneurship go further.

Jiang Qishan fell ill as a child, and because his family was financially struggling, he could not receive timely treatment, which left his right foot disabled, making him walk with one side high and the other low. This caused him to suffer discrimination in his later studies and life, and the pressure of making a living was enormous.

"I set up a small stall in Taining county town repairing bicycles, worked as a peddler, and set up a stall in the night market, but business was bleak." In order to make a living, in the mid-1980s, Jiang Qishan, who had graduated from junior high school, did many things, but none of them made money, and he felt great distress in his heart.

Just when Jiang Qishan was feeling low, someone introduced him to work at a tea plantation. During that time, he humbly asked the master for advice, and a few years later, he had mastered the techniques of tea cultivation, production, and processing.

In 1998, Jiang Qishan had the idea of starting his own business. Using the money he had saved from years of working and funds borrowed from relatives and friends, he alone contracted 40 mu of old tea garden in Hongguang Village, 4 kilometers from the county town.

Introducing new tea varieties, improving soil quality, and managing the tea hills well... After 8 years of painstaking operation, Jiang Qishan saw the hope of a good harvest. Just when he was full of joy, because of the county's tourism development and economic development needs, the tea garden he had contracted was requisitioned, and Jiang Qishan once again lost his job.

Afterward, Jiang Qishan searched everywhere and finally contracted in Longhu Village, Zhukou Town, Taining County, the operating rights for 30 years to 40 mu of tea hills. Through a period of hard work, the tea hills grew from the original 40 mu to more than 100 mu. In 2008, he also raised more than 300,000 yuan to build a new tea-processing factory and purchase a complete set of tea-making machinery.

Entrepreneurship is arduous. When he first started, Jiang Qishan only processed green tea, the price was not high, and it did not adapt to market demand, so the economic benefits were average. In 2009, black tea sold well, and Jiang Qishan spent more than 20,000 yuan on tuition to go to Wuyishan to learn how to make black tea. The black tea produced that year sold for a good price.

But fortune is fickle, and that year Jiang Qishan was owed more than 100,000 yuan for tea by an out-of-town tea merchant and could not recover it. "It was almost New Year's Eve, and I still owed employees 70,000 to 80,000 yuan in wages, and they kept pressing me for money. Those days were very difficult." At this time, Jiang Qishan thought of the disabled persons' federation. After the staff of the disabled persons' federation understood the situation, they inspected the tea garden and tea factory on the spot and immediately handled a small loan of 30,000 yuan for him, solving his urgent need.

In 2010, Taining suffered the "6·18" catastrophic flood, and Jiang Qishan's tea plantation did not escape either. Large areas of terraced tea hills collapsed, and the tea garden's mechanized farming roads and irrigation facilities were washed out by the flood, causing economic losses of more than 100,000 yuan. After the county disabled persons' federation learned of the situation, it not only came to offer condolences, but also brought experts to the tea hills to inspect the disaster situation and guide remedial measures, so that the tea hills quickly resumed production after the disaster.

At present, Jiang Qishan already has more than 110 mu of tea hills, complete tea-making equipment, and a full assembly line for making both green tea and black tea. He mainly produces black tea and also makes green teas such as Maofeng and Biluochun, with relatively good economic benefits.

While realizing the value of his life, Jiang Qishan does not forget to give back to society. At present, his tea factory has placed 5 disabled people in tea processing. During the tea-picking season, more than 60 people go up the hills to pick tea every day, driving employment for surplus labor in surrounding villages and achieving common escape from poverty and prosperity. In 2013, Jiang Qishan's "Longhu Fule Tea Plantation" won the county-level honorable title of "Fule Planting and Breeding Base," and he himself was elected a member of the persons with physical disabilities association of the fifth congress of the Taining County Disabled Persons' Federation.

Now, Jiang Qishan is full of confidence. He plans to newly develop 50 mu of tea garden this winter and next spring, introduce good tea tree varieties, strive to make high-quality tea, and make his business bigger and better.