How wood frogs bring wealth in the deep mountains and old forests

He is a passionate, pure-bred Northeastern man! Setting out at dawn and keeping watch late into the night, all for a hard-to-find "sprite" in the mountain forests. On 16,000 hectares of mountain forest, with over a million wood frogs, they once swallowed up his house and most of his life savings, yet they never extinguished his original aspiration. Li Fu raises wood frogs to fulfill a dream of getting rich, and even more to live a joyful and fulfilling life.

Li Fu, a man from Northeast China, is a devoted fan of errenzhuan. The forest he contracted covers 16,000 hectares, equivalent to 240,000 mu. If you wanted to walk all the way around it, you probably couldn't finish in three days and three nights. This is Li Fu's natural theater, and also a treasure trove of wealth.

At six in the morning, workers set out in groups of two or three in different directions. Throughout the entire forest, under the leaves, in streams and gullies, in every corner hide over a million wood frogs, large and small. Their color resembles their surroundings, and for someone without experience, spotting even one is very difficult. So how can they be caught? First, two tools are needed.

Reporter Wang Lihong: What is that you're holding?

Li Fu's employee: A lift net for catching frogs.

Reporter Wang Lihong: Hey there, big brother, what is that you're holding?

Worker: A hook, for hooking rocks and hooking frogs.

The workers spread the net across the water, and Li Fu quickly and forcefully stirs the water surface, aiming to startle the wood frogs hiding at the bottom. The startled wood frogs swim downstream and thus enter the net. This traditional method suits water with a fairly rapid current and causes almost no harm to the wood frogs. After being caught, they still have to be sorted one by one.

Li Fu: In here there are big ones and small ones. Ones like this are small.

Reporter Wang Lihong: How long has this one been growing?

Li Fu: This one is male. It must be two years old too. These just get thrown straight back into the river, useless.

Wood frogs grow very slowly and need at least three years before they can be sold. Besides calling wood frogs "ha ma," the locals also have special names for male and female wood frogs.

Li Fu: This is a male dog, this is a female leopard. The female has a red belly, the male's mouth area is white, and the male wood frog has a small bump here, because in spring when laying eggs it holds on. Male dog, female leopard, relying on my male dogs, relying on my female leopards, to create a beautiful family.

Reporter: Did you make that up yourself?

Li Fu: I sing it every day. As soon as I see there are a lot (of wood frogs), I get so happy I blow snot bubbles, that's Northeastern dialect, snot bubbles.

It's not just Li Fu; for the workers too, the more wood frogs the happier they are. Every day at three in the afternoon, after eight or nine hours of frog-catching work ends, someone is specially assigned to count the wood frogs, and wages are calculated by quantity. Wood frogs packed together secrete a layer of white mucus, which quickly disappears once they are separated.

The workers spread the net across the water, and Li Fu quickly and forcefully stirs the water surface, aiming to startle the wood frogs hiding at the bottom. The startled wood frogs swim downstream and thus enter the net. This traditional method suits water with a fairly rapid current and causes almost no harm to the wood frogs. After being caught, they still have to be sorted one by one.

Li Fu: In here there are big ones and small ones. Ones like this are small.

Reporter Wang Lihong: How long has this one been growing?

Li Fu: This one is male. It must be two years old too. These just get thrown straight back into the river, useless.

Wood frogs grow very slowly and need at least three years before they can be sold. Besides calling wood frogs "ha ma," the locals also have special names for male and female wood frogs.

Li Fu: This is a male dog, this is a female leopard. The female has a red belly, the male's mouth area is white, and the male wood frog has a small bump here, because in spring when laying eggs it holds on. Male dog, female leopard, relying on my male dogs, relying on my female leopards, to create a beautiful family.

Reporter: Did you make that up yourself?

Li Fu: I sing it every day. As soon as I see there are a lot (of wood frogs), I get so happy I blow snot bubbles, that's Northeastern dialect, snot bubbles.

It's not just Li Fu; for the workers too, the more wood frogs the happier they are. Every day at three in the afternoon, after eight or nine hours of frog-catching work ends, someone is specially assigned to count the wood frogs, and wages are calculated by quantity. Wood frogs packed together secrete a layer of white mucus, which quickly disappears once they are separated.

Guan Qinglan, a merchant at the East Market in Hunchun City, Jilin Province: Everyone knows Big Frog Li. Everyone knows him. It seems like everyone in Hunchun City knows him. He's been raising frogs for a long time. When nobody else was contracting, he contracted. He's sharp and spotted the business opportunity.

Li Fu: At first I didn't want to hear it, but later Big Frog Li, so be it, Big Frog Li. There's no stopping them calling me that. Everyone calls me that.

What business opportunity lies in wood frogs, and how did Li Fu become a leader in the industry? For Li Fu, wood frogs fulfilled his dream of getting rich, and even more, let him live a life he never imagined in decades, so much so that even approaching 60, every day is still full of suspense, with surprises and pain possibly arriving at any moment.

This is Hunchun, a small border town adjacent to Russia and North Korea. In the 1980s, Li Fu came here from a remote village, opening restaurants, running transport, doing border trade. Savings of over a million yuan at the time genuinely made him a rich man, and back then Li Fu was bold and confident.

Li Fu: I dare say this, if I go back to my hometown, across my whole area there's nobody better than me. So you tell me, didn't I get where I am today by my drive, by my perseverance and persistence?

Reporter Wang Lihong: Is he exaggerating?

Li Fu's wife Li Chunlan: Not exaggerating, not exaggerating at all. Right, that was actually quite understated.

In 1996, Li Fu, who was in the agricultural product distribution business, discovered a new business opportunity.

In Northeast China, many areas have a tradition of eating wood frogs. Soybeans, soybean paste, and a firewood iron pot are enough to make an authentic braised wood frog in soybean paste. This dish is not only a delicacy on ordinary people's tables, but also a specialty dish at many local restaurants.

Lin Yiguo, chairman of a hotel in Hunchun City, Yanbian Autonomous Prefecture, Jilin Province: Normally when distinguished guests or VIPs come, there must be a frog dish. This is the most nutritious, the highest-grade, an indispensable fine delicacy.

The Changbai Mountains of Northeast China and their surroundings are the main production area for wood frogs in our country. Wood frogs generally grow in humid, unpolluted forest land, requiring tall trees, shorter shrubs, and also herbaceous plants and fallen leaves, so that moisture is not evaporated.

In the late 1990s, wood frog farming in Yanbian Autonomous Prefecture was just starting out. Most farmers contracted a few hundred hectares, with the larger ones reaching two or three thousand hectares. Li Fu saw that the profits from wood frogs were very tempting, and in one go contracted 16,000 hectares of forest land for nearly 200,000 yuan.

Li Fu: At the time I just wanted to chase the dream of getting rich. If I was going to do it back then, I thought, it's this big. If I succeed at farming, how much money will I make, how much can I earn? Isn't it just having this dream of getting rich?