Highland gold rush leads villagers to prosperity together

A successful businessman who studies hard, works hard and acts swiftly and decisively - this is the deep impression that Hu Xiaomin, the "owner" of the "Minlilai" leisure resort in Wanli District, left on the reporter. Over the years, relying on his flexible mind and hard-working spirit that fears no hardship, Hu Xiaomin single-handedly founded the largest farmhouse leisure resort in Wanli District, but he did not forget his fellow villagers after becoming wealthy. While continuously breaking through his own development, he also led the villagers of the area to prosperity together.

Hu Xiaomin, 40 years old this year, is a villager of Shucai Village, Zhaoxian Town, Wanli District. Before starting his business, Hu Xiaomin, like most people around him, was engaged in pig farming. Considering that pig farming was high-risk and harmful to the environment, and that it was already difficult for the industry to achieve breakthrough development, Hu Xiaomin began to look elsewhere. "At that time, the district was actively advocating the development of tourism, so I had the idea of opening a farmhouse restaurant. With more tourists, business would certainly not be bad." When mentioning the original idea of choosing to open a farmhouse restaurant, Hu Xiaomin said.

After raising funds from multiple sources, in 2004, the "Minlilai" farmhouse leisure resort independently founded by Hu Xiaomin began trial operation. The resort adhered to the concept of operating, constructing and improving at the same time, with main business projects including farmhouse dining and fishing. Under Hu Xiaomin's hard work in management and the government's strong support, the resort's benefits achieved breakthroughs year after year, and its scale was further expanded. In 2012, "Minlilai" Resort had become a farmhouse-themed leisure resort integrating agricultural sightseeing, farmhouse dining, fishing and leisure, vacation entertainment, conference and accommodation, and more.

Becoming wealthy without forgetting the ties to his hometown, the successful Hu Xiaomin had always paid attention to the development of his hometown. In order to lead the villagers to prosperity together, plus some experience accumulated from running the farmhouse restaurant, Hu Xiaomin developed the idea of making the agricultural industry bigger and stronger. In 2012, after repeated consideration, Hu Xiaomin combined the unique highland terrain and existing agricultural foundation of Wanli District and chose the tea planting industry. After doing a good job in the preliminary market survey, he led the villagers to contract more than 600 mu of mountain land in highland areas such as Hongxing and Makou, and set up a tea processing factory, establishing Gaoshan Siji Ecological Agriculture Co., Ltd., driving local farming households to prosperity through the "company + base + farmers" business model. After 3 years of development, the Wanli highland famous and excellent tea industry cluster had begun to take shape, with surrounding tea planting area reaching more than 5000 mu, tea products further improved, tea culture deeply explored, and a high-quality tea industrialization path gradually taking shape.

At the same time, under his guidance, last year, the villagers began to try planting highland organic vegetables. Hu Xiaomin, on the one hand, introduced advanced and excellent varieties for the villagers, and on the other hand, went to the market to open up sales channels for the products. In the spring of 2015, the first batch of highland vegetables in Wanli District matured, and the vegetable prices were 30% higher than the market, which strengthened the villagers' confidence in planting highland vegetables. "I am really happy to be able to do something for my fellow villagers. Only when everyone is rich is it truly rich. As long as the villagers trust me, I will continue to do this." Hu Xiaomin said with a smile.